You're definitely right! The course should be the main thing that's the challenge, not getting back to the beginning of your stage. However, imo, I think the fact that it's the only course right now with that extra factor that makes it so difficult makes it more intimidating. Saying this, I'm not opposed to the idea of getting rid of the water because it's not a super significant change, but it'll make the course easier and will also take away from the fact that it's a wipeout-themed map.
An alternative suggestion, maybe we could meet in the middle and instead of getting rid of water or just keeping water, we could have super easy jumps made out of white stained glass so that there's still the challenge of water but it's much easier to get back to the start? These jumps obviously would be placed so people can't shortcut the parkour too.