Is running away and saving every 2 minutes the right way to play Stalker 2 early on? Loving the game so far.

Gone into Stalker 2 blind and I’m having a great but challenging time on the middle difficulty level. So far I’ve found myself running from as much conflict as possible and saving all the time. Is this how things are meant to go or have I just not got the hang of things yet? I’ve avoided all the posts here in case of spoilers but looking for feedback as to how the game is designed to be played. Thanks for the help.