That said I really wanna know how to become a herm like Lily as I am still at the part of collecting copper wires for the Rejuvenator. Also is there a way to become a part-time Hucow as well?
As mentioned in the reply above, that's not implemented yet. Check back in maybe 2 years and it'll probably work without crashing the game too much, assuming the patrons keep voting for it often. Maybe you'll also be able to pop the ladies like balloons by overinflating them with babies.
I am also playing in Hardmode as survival and management games have really tempered my preferences and it is not that I am a masochist or anything ;3
I don't want to tell you how to play the game, but I advise you to keep numerous saves in a folder so you'll have points to jump back to if you happen to find out that your PC's womb and abdominal cavity will inevitably and violently explode and stuff that can't be fixed by only loading a save from a day ago.
I try to integrate myself with the town... but with the water and a friendly pharmacist... I know to be more cautious and I also refused to get the insurance.
The insurance itself isn't as big of a deal anymore since the difficulty setting was decoupled from it.
That said, you did mention that you've selected hard mode.
My only gripe is time management... There is barely enough time in the day and I have yet to find a way to increase Vigor/Energy.
There is no non-cheating way to refill vigor aside from sleeping into the next day.
You can very slowly increase your maximum vigor by regularly exercising. I'm not sure if it's tied to the exercise or the athletics skill. Either way, you'll eventually have enough stamina to exercise twice per day instead of being too tired after only a single session.
Meeting with people, hanging out, and having sex takes way too much time realistically speaking especially since I need to top off companionship and all the other stats after work that I also need time to de-stress, attend my courses, and my daily chores.
Yes, there's barely any time left during your work days. You can squeeze in a quick date or hangout. Do note that you don't have to spend a lot of time in those to get good boosts to your mental stats.
On that note, be prepared to schedule hangouts/dates with non-unique NPCs every 2~3 days. My PC and a non-unique NPC didn't see each other for a week and the NPC was gone. (This means the NPC performed suicide)
After tracking back saves, I noticed he was already gone 3 days earlier, so no more than 4 days after last meeting the PC.
My PC didn't get any call to meet up from him. NPCs simply suicide way too quickly, which is why I highly advise to date unique NPCs since they won't suicide. To spot one of them, look at their suicide score. They'll have a suicide score of -2 and Lily has -3.