Just tried the new build. I'll put my comments about my playthrough in a bullet list.
- I cranked the difficulty up to 100 the first time through starting with no upgrades. Still no problem finishing it.
- I never once used my thrusters. I sat in the same place I spawned in every belt every time.
- I was never once hit by an asteroid.
- Three times I was attacked by enemy ships (up from zero times in the previous build unless I sought them out). One of those times, the attack did hinder my progress significantly because there were a whole lot of them.
- I chose the available belt with the most zurg every time. In case of a tie, I chose the one with fewer enemies.
- In the beginning, I was clearing most belts in about 150 seconds, and toward the end with upgrades from defeating the enemies, I was clearing most belts in about 70 seconds.
- The better agility feels a lot nicer.
- I definitely noticed that Helado was moving more slowly.
- I finished with BT trailing by about 350.
One tip I want to give on adjusting difficulty. What I usually do is make the hardest difficulty impossible, then barely scale back from there. Make it such that is literally impossible to win on difficulty 100 with full upgrades. No matter what you do, and how many times you try you can't do it. Then adjust your other difficulties based on that. Then slightly scale it back so that it is only almost impossible to win on difficulty 100 with full upgrades.