My experience tells me that the case is definitely the latter one:

...the answers are so fucking simple and right under our noses that we’ve missed it near our whole lives

A few thoughts in response to what you have to say, based on my understanding/experience:

everything is pin-point accurate. Accepting this is to go with the flow (of life, the universe or whatever the BIG thing is :)
an experience of suffering/hardship is similarly accurate. We suffer when we resist the notion that it is accurate - we then fight. Instead, accepting the accuracy of all experience and not resisting also allows for learning and growth and, ultimately, the dissolution of the experience of suffering (as this particular strand is no longer required).
it is a process of discovery. What anyone else says or does may guide or provide examples, but ultimately I am my own highest authority. In other words, only I can find out - noone can tell me. We are, necessarily, our own gurus :D
by comparing our experience to another's (positively or negatively), we not only relinquish the opportunity to understand it and grow from it, but we also end up resisting and suffering
everything is connected, therefore anything can inform on anything else. The outer is a reflection of the inner, and vice-versa, it can actually be read as such.
the nature of the universe is fundamentally benign....... Life is Shit is a perception, it is not reality, however real it may feel
Just my thoughts on your post @exyle. Cheers.