Hey, glad you like it :)
The experience of starting over at the first area after death is by design. We were hoping that would encourage players to explore different areas. And we wanted death to feel a little bit punishing, since you don't lose your gold or anything. You can discover and open up shortcuts that reduce the travel time, and once you have defeated the first boss you can teleport directly to the home base area at any time, if that helps.
But it's useful to know that some players find that feature frustrating. We'll keep that in mind in the future as we consider updates. Thanks!