Thank you for writing such an in-depth review of my game! I have also played a lot of card games, so I certainly understand where many of these points are coming from.
If I was going for a normal, scalable, card game, I probably wouldn't use 'strictly better' cards, like you said. In this case, though, I had to use them both to simplify the design process to meet time constraints, as well as to ensure that enemy decks are better than the player deck. If the enemies did not have better decks than the player, then the player would never die and see the deck editing screen, which I didn't really want. So, I had to make some cards that were, frankly, overpowered to ensure the player died at least once.
I also wish I could have had more diverse cards and strategies. Once again, this came down to time. It is much easier to balance the strategies in a short period of time when the strategies are fairly simple. If I had more time, though, I would probably add card draw, and less powerful cards that don't end the turn. I think your recommendations are all really solid. I might make a post game jam version that adds this stuff, honestly.
I should have added starter decks. I considered it, but decided against it at the time. Once again, I think this is something that I should add in a post jam version of the game. The wrath/bell/assault deck honestly sounds really neat!
Once again, thanks for the review. It's given me a lot to think about.