So first of all I've been impressed so far with how active on this forum and active in looking to fix issue the dev has been. I will say though I think the decision not to be able to port over saves/cheat is going to massively hinder the games developement long term as people will be happy to grind if the content is good enough, but nobody is going to be happy to grind for content they have seen many times. Setting limits to how often you can gain stats is a bold move anyway but add that to having to put in half an hour or more of grinding to get to where you left off every single update will just put people off.
Thanks.. and So longer term I am hoping that I am going to have enough in place placeholders. .that the need to have to start from a fresh save per update will not be the case.. So as long as I leave say 10 placeholder spaces to store data when I need it, but not yet not what for.. that will be created on old saves.. and then I can use that save for new versions..
At the moment where they have been some big engine changes, that can happen without a new save, as long as it doesnt need data to be stored (or I had put a place holder in ready)..
The grind going foward should be not as bad as you will be seeing new content to grind but yes. I will want also people to be able to pick up where they have left off.. This will have to happen (or at least more often than not for updates)
Hope that reassures you that I am keeping that in mind also