Please don't balance or design the game around what the top 1% of speed/efficiency players do. The game felt like it had a great pace, to me, and now it's a slog. I don't care what the spread-sheet writing optimization maximizers do, they'll figure out new ways to push the envelope regardless but meanwhile the game is just categorically slower and less fun for me and a lot of other players.
I also feel like progression between players will vary greatly between the different tabs. 1) spend red gems 2) RNG of treasures, cards and events. I for example got a huge unexpected boost a while back with a tier 2 fully upgraded veggie gain treasure from the merchant. Just I was starting my long journey towards the next crop needing veggies. Unexpectedly more than trippling my veggie gain (at that time) and subsequently immensly speeding up my farm game.
Which is to say, progress between players can and will vary sometimes dramatically. Though this isn't a bad thing and still player driven. I would like the rng to be a bit more predictable though. Just tell me what I will get when I purchase something (hint: I do that anyway with a little savescum scrying). Just saying what you get next doesnt fundamentally change the game and adds a layer of strategy.
I feel like these two points have been overlooked in regards to balance.
Due to how slowly gems are generated two players who have bought different red gem upgrades but have otherwise identical set ups will have vastly different progression and will take a long time to catch up, if they ever do.
Then you add the random factor, and all of these make an impact on your speed. Card set ups completely change progression for an entire prestige; which treasures and how many will obviously changes progression again; what you're able to buy from the merchant/bank is random; the entire Halloween event was random; presumably the entire Christmas event will be random. Even progression in the mines (pickaxes), horde (heirlooms) and farm (gold/rare drops) are random.
There are too many variables to be able to balance around a hypothetical "typical" player.