Thank you for the excellent talk by Todd Murphy that you've linked. Interestingly when I scrolled through the youtube comments there, I see a response by Todd himself that addresses your problem 1:

Liz W

3 years ago (edited)

I’m learning a lot from your teaching and I’m very grateful to you.

As far as enlightenment goes I’m now wondering if one has to be miserable and or terrified to experience it? In which case should I stop trying, since I’m just averagely ok? I’m not expecting an answer as this is a video from 2011 .

brainsci

3 years ago

No, don't stop trying. The accumulated momentum of daily meditation can also set the stage. You may not achieve "sudden" enlightenment, but the gradual kind, discussed towards the end of this video, remains within your grasp, though it's not for the lazy.

As for the second problem, it's already well pointed by the reader response appended to the article that problems don't vanish, they just don't get labelled as problems. They are seen and responded to with full acceptance.

That being said, there is a deeper and subtler issue with the teaching of 'being in the now' that I have explored in detail at https://sureshn13.medium.com/being-in-the-now-trap-47c97c25d136.

Being in the now is different from accepting the now fully though many (including perhaps Tolle himself) treat them as synonymous. Being in the now retains and even emphasizes the division between the experiencer and the experienced. Accepting the now fully is to be a passive seer of both the experiencer and the experienced which is to abide as Awareness.