Basically this game is about mistakes. Mistakes in developers trust, mistakes in your choices, mistakes of your past. I doubt that the game will ever be changed besides the mods usage. It feels like this game is more about nostalgia abuse. No doubt, I had a blast during alpha demo but nothing of that sort during release version.

You have to understand that your effort annuls every time you leaving the zone. You can see different zones on your map. For example, I wasted 3,5 hours exploring the zone and killing the boss just to get a drop for 0,2 faster climbing (an artifact that I could transfer to the different zone). Also it is possible to get universal weapon that could be transferred to the different zones but it’s very rare and doesn’t give you much “time save”. All your equipment gone, all your pets gone. Do everything over again. What a great “mechanic”, right?

I don’t know why you need traders. They are useless. Crafting, smiting beyond uselessness. Death is a part of your gameplay. The only punish you get is a time wasted getting to the place you died before to finish the boss.

Overall it’s a horrible disaster wrapped in layer of nostalgia and disappointment. At least it’s a good practice to train yourself not to trust in early access games.