Yeah I think the interface needs a bit more clarity. The intuition is missing, though that didn't occur us till it was too late in the project to add features.
Maybe we need to show the threshold to hit the 'tier' which unlocks new buildings and new planets. It's meant to scale exponentially, with bigger more valuable worlds farther away, and more expensive buildings becoming available as you advance. There are 3 tiers, and the game doesn't complete until build the last tier and the final building , though that isn't stated explicitly anywhere. Just ran out of time. We were pushing updates at like 3:30, with delivery due at 4 haha.
Thanks for playing, and the feedback! It's super valuable.