Thank you for playing, I'm really glad you found the tutorial helpful! It took up most of a day to get it to work right and I worried it wouldn't be that useful. :)
Balancing was definitely too difficult for me to get right. I wanted to make sure it was possible to see all five of the different levels I'd managed to make, so things are weighted heavily in the player's favor. As long as the player is willing to spend a lot of time doing upgrades in the shop, at least. :)