Whoa there is a lot to unpack for this game. This is a game with a learning curve but I'm glad I powered through it.
First off, I want to bring up the worker system. The worker system is brilliant. I've seen worker placement mechanics in a handful of incrementals, but not in the way you implemented them. Here they are flexible upgrades to your systems, whether it's a resource gen buff, selling automation, or research.
Ultimately the way you place your workers is based on a combination of your current goals + desired level of active play. Like before I stepped away from my pc for a while, I turned on autosell and weakened my nuclear generation. But when I was watching a YT video, I just did all those manually while focusing on research. The result of all this is that workers become extremely valuable resources that are important to your strategy. If you built a future game just doubling down on that mechanic and narrowing the focus, that could be something special.
As you already know, the general game can be confusing. The hardest part is seeing your income drop and not knowing how to dig yourself out of the hole, as there are several sinks and traps that you can fall into. Even now I'm still not entirely sure what's the best energy % to send to the town because it seems like the cons outweigh the pros at some point. Even some of the research ones can bite you if you're not careful.
It does feel good when you can climb out of those holes since this a strategic game. For example, I didn't care about the market prices at first, but once I got to nuclear power plants, I would actually wait for a good price because they are so expensive.
Overall this is a game is a challenging incremental, intended or not. It has a relatively complex economy and I could probably beat the game if I understood it better. I did enjoy trying to figure it all out but alas I'm currently stuck farming research hoping it's the thing I need to get my resource generation profitable again.