I got it the other day after finishing 5B! I got curious about skipping the keys in 5B, which involved a lot of spike jump tricks (ended up not doing them), and then polished off 1A dashless the same day. I definitely followed along with a video, and I had to restart after a few of the hard rooms after I instinctively dashed to save myself.

I don't think I thought it would be hard, I just wasn't interested in learning precise spike tricks when I started going for golden berries. It was more interesting to see how the easy levels play out when you have to memorize and execute the whole thing at once.