More about grinding:
I know the game since 0.7
At that time there was much more grinding (real grinding, tons of).
Megacock took a lot of that out (coz he listens to ppl).
May be its still not optimal, but it is no solution to take it completely out. Game wouldnt make much sense any more.
And a lot of players (incl. me) like to have something to manage and to care for.
For pure fapping there are enough other places.
An example:
v0.6: First thing in the morning the great magican Sauron had to walk over himself personally to next room (store), and to get the 4 ingredients himself (took him about 15 clicks! - afair). Go back and produce single potions one by one.
Later versions: Sauron tells Golum to fetch items AND ingredients (1 click to call him, 1 click to send him). This works after 10 ingredients (was 15, before was 30). Once in a week (or less), he takes 7 ingredients of every kind and brews 7 potions with one click.
These are just examples of grind reducing with updates.
To save the 2 clicks for sending out Golum and automat this - impo thats a bad idea.
Coz sometimes we need extra liquor extract, we need extra mushrooms.
Then Sauron is still able to fetch these stuff by himself and send Golum for intel after that.