3rd.qst is the most brutal of the internal quests. That's why it's unlocked after 4th.qst if you do not have mastery of 2nd. Comparing them to films, where chronology affects the plot is silly: The second quest is not a sequel to the first quest, but Zelda II is a sequel to both.
All of the quests have the same story and plot. The first four differ primarily in difficulty, and 5th adds new features from 2.50.
Running out of bombs can be a problem in the normal 1st/2nd NES quests. I recall once, years ago, playing on the FDS, that I ran out of bombs in a dungeon, and being unable to get any drops, I had to do an Up+A save and continue.
Anyway, we don't have unlimited rights to edit the old contest quests. They have a number of issues that we simpl aren't going to correct, because they're still the property of their creators, and distributed with ZC due to winning the contests for their time.