Going into the sequel a bit more well prepared seemed to have helped with my ongoing journey into the Dune universe. So when I say that Messiah wasn't as bat-poo crazy as Dune, I'm not sure if that's objectively true, or just me having read it through bat-poo glasses.
What is true is that much less happens in this book. It spans less time, fewer locations and less plot. The themes are just as grand as they were before, but just lower in number. And of course a lot of the groundwork we had been punished with in the first book was not necessary here.
Yet still the book is a confusing hairy mess that makes you feel as if you're still reading a rough draft of something amazing to come. After 50 years I guess that can't be true, that the style is by design, and I've made peace with that. So although I will definitely proceed with the third book in the essential trilogy, it will almost certainly be my last from the Dune series.