Like i said at the beginning of the post I've only just started dreadlord but i definitely see the grind coming with the building materials so i just haven't hit that point yet. One upside to this game is that its a lot easier/safer to cheat as the saves are just json and since there doesn't seem to be any constantly increasing affection system to periodically unlock scenes as you progress you aren't as likely to miss scenes if it's not coded to account for you hitting multiple thresholds at once while also not requiring you to still do the minigames since the scenes happen after the minigame is complete. Before doing that first invasion i had already cheated in infinite money and gave myself like 500 exp and skill potions to get some skills on people and catch Fenris up in level since I could have gotten the potions by just sitting in base repeating that one servant mission and could have repeated some combat encounters to grind exp on Fenris.
As far as all the DDC stuff goes, idk its all separate universes to me and i think you are putting way too much thought into it, especially concerning mugen. That was the first thing i remember him working on and it seemed like just a way for him to practice doing animations in a somewhat constructive way before he wanted to start on a bigger project. As a professional programmer who has done some game jams that is the most likely motivation there based on my experience doing similar things. I highly doubt at the time he was thinking that DDC would eventually become a main character in a game. At the time he MIGHT have had some ideas on palestra but to think that he also had plans at the time for dreadlord and that DDC would be the main character is just ludicrous to me. I'd be willing to accept that palestra and dreadlord DDC might be the same, but crediting any motivation from mugen is just silly both because of the time difference between projects as well as mugen basically just being a porn gif viewer built around combat and, probably taking inspiration from mortal kombat games, decided to do some brutal finishers with no thought whatsoever how it might impact the character 5+ years in the future.
Ultimately this is all just speculation. While its unfortunate that this character has moved away from your prefered content, its the creator's right to do what he wants with him and I don't personally have any issues with what they have done with him. Hopefully in the future we'll get more content that appeals more to your tastes. That's my opinion and I doubt it's going to change so i'm just gonna leave it at that.
