Is there any sort of game over if youre bad with the prison upkeep?(also the unlocking prison stuff in your main room)Later on you can unlock some edicts that allow Karryn to work some side jobs such as bartender, and those side activities have unique scenes and mechanics to them.
But other than that, yeah the base game is very grindy. You just keep fighting over and over to progress (unless you cheat to cut the tedium).