Glad you liked the game.
Your feedback is good and noted.
Most of them are already fixed in the dev version but rest are a definite things to focus on on the next release.
Gradius was a heavy inspiration as well as Xenon Mega Blast and Raptor: Call of the Shadow back from our childhoods.
The upgrades have been reworked and will have more variety as well in the future releases to more pressure their functionality offering varying play style approach with each of them.
Single collision deaths are also fixed so you can bump in on enemies and survive if you have shields available.
Enemy variety is also reworked quite a bit and there is way more to come as well as more obstacles and stuff to interact with during fighting.
You will definitely going to see more about the game if you'll follow us and the games progress.