Thanks for playing!
I have my own dogma on true open world games, I think in many cases if you're playing the game optimally (which permadeath greatly encourages) there is one location to go to that is the best option out of all the rest, usually the least dangerous. In DCSS, even though that game has branching paths, I always go in a mostly similar path (Dungeon->Lair->Swamp->Depths,etc). Perhaps in another game I'll try to make an open world where the location you choose to go in is a truly interesting choice.
I think there does need to be more perks, I'd like to introduce more archetype focused perks, like mutation-build, food-build, candy-build, etc.