i have been waiting on the next major character update before playing again
Same. I don't like grinding out days just to make money to get to certain pieces of content (it'd take me about two more weeks to get enough money to buy the bar upgrade), so I'm waiting for more standard content to be added so I can naturally proceed to the rest. (EDIT: To be clear, I'm not saying "the grind is too hard", I'm saying this is something I avoid doing altogether, at least when it's only a thing because the main content is unfinished.) This will also help me provide better feedback regarding the natural flow of progression in the game. One of the major downsides of "early access" types of games is that the people who are giving you feedback are almost always the people who have finished everything in the game so far and are just trying out the newest additions in each update, rather than giving you feedback on how well the game flows from start to finish.
On that note, I feel I should reiterate that the price/reward system of some of the building upgrades needs to be reexamined, as "weekly income of 10% what you paid" means you're in the red for 70 days after purchasing it, which does not work out well at all. This is the kind of thing that people may not notice as much if they're just grinding out days for money at the end of each update anyway, but it's worth keeping in mind for when people start from the beginning and try to play through naturally.