Alright, i'm back again. I decided today to read through the GDD, and REALLY give it a shot. I am BLOWN away!! I played for almost 2 hours, and had a ton of fun trying to get the highest potency concoction. The impurity/volatility is still a bit difficult to understand, but can absolutely be overcame by just playing with it. I think the leaderboard might be bugged as well, since it is only showing the top 3 scores, and the rest seem like they would be low potency, unsure though because I am still not 100% on what makes something the most potent :)
Managed to get up to about 3.5k, and it was an absolute blast. The systems on display here are not only beautifully done, but very interesting and unique. The mixing menu had a few quirks, and it was difficult to combine things that I was intending too, but that was remedied once I discovered that you could place them off to the side and they would stay there. Truly fantastic piece of work here, and I am really glad that I took the time to really dive in!
To anyone reading this, put your best foot forward and just play around with it for a bit, once it settles in, its so much fun!