Thanks for playing and all the feedback!
I think you make a lot of good points, I am constantly trying to improve the balance and difficulty so I really appreciate to hear peoples' thoughts about it. It was all a lot worse in previous versions though I think. My Nuclear Throne inspirations should be pretty clear if you've played that game yeah. The game won't be quite as hard right of the bat as NT though (and hopefully longer eventually), I'm thinking about it a bit like in Slay the Spire where there really isn't any danger to die really early; but you're gathering resources. I don't think I'm there yet and I need to start just pumping out more content.
A bonus for not talking any damage is a good idea too, I'll try it out. Tried halving the size of the first level too, feels better. Been trying out removing the health node from the map entirely too, having you buy it from a shop instead. So yeah, there are lots of improvements too be made!