Upon landing and pressing E to activate three of the switches on the ground in the snow atop the piller the middle pin drops but I cannot seem to get down. I found a YouTube video of someone playing the game and in that small clip it looked like the YouTuber was prompted with the command before being able to jump down.

Can anyone confirm this is how it is supposed to be and if so is there something I need to do before the game will let me jump down this hole and enter the palace?

The reason I am asking is because I have never been prompted or told I could jump down the hole to enter what I presume to be the palace nor can I use E to activate the path down or use the space bar to do so. Figuring it to be a technical issue, something like a missing file I have already uninstalled and reinstalled the game as well as uninstalled it, rebooted, re-downloaded it, and re-installed it but all that did not solve the issue and I cannot get down this hole and into what I presume to be the palace.

It's a bug, I have the same problem. It is already fixed in steam version, but not here. Support didn't answer my letter.

I believe the same, I checked for updates just to be sure and I still could not enter. I just wrote support as well and sent a link to this thread.

I would like to very much enter the palace. I feel like it is some how important though I do not exactly know why and although this may be I would still very much like to enter it sooner than a century from now; mainly due to the fact that I at current do not own a stasis chamber or a space ship with what I assume to be a quirky AI installed on the computer who could stand to act a little nicer.

I, too have the same issue after downloading twice, reinstalliing 3 times, restarting numerous games, revisiting the same level ad-infinitum, reconfiguring settings in every fashion possible, etc. Support hasn't gotten back to me. I would like to play the game further than the very first challenge...

I got a reply from GOG they are working with the Developers to get the patch. So it is a known issue which means it'll probably get updated soon, but I totally understand.

I see a patch was released on Oct 2. Are the bugs fixed and game working good now?

Yes, it does work.