You are definitely not alone.

The wisp lights radius doesn't keep up with any kind of movement. Now a bit of delay like this is OK and reasonable but its too little and the base range is too short. Up the radius of the wisplight 25-30% and we maybe getting some place.
Ditto the static torches which are my method to clear the local area (Provided I remember to put them in safer elevated or shielded places!)

If it's the water that is troubling you, it's only a matter of exploration efforts to find more inland-like regions of the biome.

i loved the mistlands biome so far. have only begun exploreing and already found a new dungeon type and some new forge and items. the seeker soliders as tanky as ♥♥♥♥. still dont know how to deal with the super foggy areas yet (AND I DONT WANT TO KNOW so no spoilers please) but i just sailed around the biome and then found a smaller compressed area and just ventured into the mist.

shortly after not beeing able to see like 10 feet in front of me and only watching the sounds of enemies instead of seeing them to avoid suprises i came into a huge clearing which was fully mistfree with some kind of dwarven camp and a giant skull next to a smaller tower with a basement full of dwarf people in it. never saw that before so far. when i arrived there i tought i came into starship troopers. the dwarfs where fighting giant bug creatures and there was fire explodeing everywhere it felt like a warzone. the dwarfs won after a bit but only 1 survived the attack. nearly all of the excavation side got obliterated in the fight.

set up a portal in the nearby abandoned tower and found something called infested mine.

the enemies are tough but i have to my suprise not even died once yet in this biome. but compared to the swamp this biome feels really great so far.

i hope there is a way to deal with the mist areas better later on tough.

mineing that giant skull out angered the dwarf and he tryed to kill me. so i had to end him. then keept mineing it. it gave black marble and a new muddy scrap pile like thingy called soft tissue. when i found these black cores in the mine i was able to make new factorys out of them. since i only have 5 cores i just switched between the structures and was able to make a new cool looking bow finally. havent found a way to upgrade it past level 2 yet sadly but it shows a level 3 upgrade in the menu. will probaly have to find another materials to unlock the upgrade option first.

avoiding the super thick fog and navigating this biome is a challenge but a good one. its not as heavenly good as the plains which is my favorite biome so far as you have to jump so much in mistlands biomes.... the enemies feel more fair aswell.

so for me its like : plains > mistlands > mountain > black forest > meadows > swamp in terms of biome awesomeness.

i stay true to my original claim a while back : ♥♥♥♥ THE SWAMP. worst biome by a mile.

thankfully the mistlands provides a new big easy to mine souce of scrap iron aswell. no more going back to the swamp because EVERYTHING requires iron for no good reason.

and i love the black marble build pieces. didnt expect to get these. time to make a new giant mainbase with it as i assume its the last building material for now. have not see a new door build option yet despite there beeing new doors on the dwarf towers. maybe i miss a material for them yet.

seriously. the swamp is the worst simply because of WET status beeing applied nonstop. a debuff you cannot do anything about that is reapplied instantly just by beeing in a biome is plain dumb and just feels cheap.

sadly there seems to be no new sword in the mistlands atleast i didnt see one on the new forge options. but the new bow is awesome. the new armor feels pointless for now defense wise its not much of a gain over padded. BUT THAT CAPE. an item that REMOVES YOUR LORD AND SAVOIR GRAVITYs influence from the game. that was the first thing i made out of the bit of refined either i got out of that new refinery structure. damn thingy nearly ruined by base in the process. didnt realize it was damageing structures around it at first. thats new.

cannot wait to explore this biome further. the solider bugs feel a bit TOO tanky tough.
and seeing that giant floaty bug thingy for the first time from the boat on the shoreline and hearing its sounds i was like WHAT THE HELL IS THAT thing. meanwhile my old gamer brain : KIROV REPORTING. after fighting it i realized my brain had the right idea. pretty much the same thing. SLOW but deadly if you let it get too close.

Get on your boat and find a more favourable section of mistlands.

Though if your world existed before the Mistlands update came in you may only have tiny islands which would dampen your experience.

It's really hard, be harder, good luck, you'll beat it.