They don't have to line up all sides. More points if you do but not mandatory. You can line up forest with house or fields. Some things are blocked though, with more restrictions, mainly with water and tracks. But hey, that's what refund is there for as well, you don't have to like it! :)

That's what I mean by nothing lines up nicely. Each tile will have something like a house, some trees and a field on it. I can group it with houses or trees or fields but it doesn't line up with all three. There's no real way to plan ahead and leave extra space either cause all your new tiles won't line up with that space.

Try to group things together, even when you have no "mission" to do so. In your first screenshots, you should have started to build a single track, you would have then easily succeeded in the two missions, having 10 more tiles. You have missions when you have to group exactly n objects and some where you have to group at least n objects. When done, don't also forget to close the region when there is a flag to have again more tiles in your pile. I ended my first game with 8180 and I'm no genius believe me! Check my last screenshot if you want to see it.

You must have an abnormally tiny brain.