If I understand correctly you exposed an interface that was too general (AKA low level) for the user's semantics. It seems to me that this interface was fitting

If I understand correctly you exposed an interface that was too general (AKA low level) for the user's semantics. It seems to me that this interface was fitting for you as the developers to write new features on top of though? In other words, if with think in terms of simplicity then maybe the right approach was to have the general interface as your abstraction layer and on the higher layer you have something that is semantically close to what your users understand. The general layer would be simple as I understand it and provide the building blocks for the more specifically designed user interface.