If you plan to make it a full game then you probably need to get rid of the "pay or dead system" because that's making the game an arcade game and arcade games rarely are full games
I would make it a "pay to progress" or "pay now for reward" system
I agree. Paying to not die gives it a lot of tension. Which is at odds with having to explore to figure out what things cost, how to make new items, and gathering resources. It could work as an arcade game, but things would need to be more immediately obvious to avoid wasting time.
