This was way too much fun! First off, really love how you worked with the pico-8 limitations, it feels great and looks great even with the 128x128 and limited color palette.
Making mistakes in this game is punishing, but thanks to the 25 year cycle it's very much contained, so mistakes only matter for a short (well, round an hour) long run. Compare that to stellaris, where if you colonize the wrong planet at the start you really have to go for an uphill battle the rest of the game. Here it's more of a "oh fuck I probably shouldn't have done that, I'll do it differently next run".
Overall, this is really impressive work, good job!