I think you're 100% right in that things drag on a bit too long, I have combined ADHD as well so in hindsight after all the pride from having a finished game has worn off that was the first thing that I noticed too. Things only really start happening from day three on and I think if I update the game after the jam I would probably cut day two altogether and skip to day three. I'd also make the minutes go by faster. It also doesn't help that I have a RNG spawner that decides whether or not you just get a random sound event or if it spawns an enemy. So some playthroughs end up having no monsters at all. Also something I would change to be a bit more deliberate so there aren't as many downtimes.
Reading by the way only reduces your boredom early on, the more you read the same book the more boring it gets over time and at some point it'll make you more bored. I figured that's how it would work irl so I implemented it that way. Kinda to give the player something they can use early on but not rely on the longer the game goes.
The intended gameplay loop is for you to earn money, take care of your needs, avoid the monsters and then survive to day 7. I originally planned for people to just keep on dying and observing which activities do what and which stats interact with other stats. Like hunger and thirst will decrease your energy and health if you let it get too low, boredom will make you hungry and thirsty faster, exercising will make you smelly, etc. Slowly finding out how to balance all the stats so that you can survive till the end. My testers were able to survive after a few attempts but I get that it's frustrating to learn especially early on.
The hand is just a thing you need to learn from. If you stand far enough away from the PC while interacting with it, it isn't able to hurt you. That whole thing with the eye being able to spawn and attack you while you're doing an activity is an oversight honestly. It never happened during the tests because of the random nature of its spawn. Usually it gives you just enough time to break eye contact if you react fast enough. As soon as the laser charge sound starts you got four seconds before it fires and it takes about ten seconds for it to slurp back up into the ceiling again which is when you're safe. I think in hindsight I would also make it so that the charge up charges down when you break eye contact instead of just pausing and resuming, because that's also one major complaint about the eye I've been hearing these past days.
Regarding the secret ending, there have been some other hints I've hidden within the game (especially during the 6th day) that would be able to point you to it because some of my testers also weren't able to understand the lyrics, which I fully blame that radio effect for (definitely not my shoddy mixing skills lol). I've been meaning to upgrade to one of the newer Komplete's but money is tight so I've been doing what I can with Komplete 10. When I get around to it I'll definitely check out Noire Piano, thank you!
It doesn't come off as negative at all, I'm really grateful that you took the time to write all of your criticism out! A lot of things I've already noticed myself after the jam because hindsight is always 20/20 but you made some really good points and I very much appreciate it! I'll probably try to fix these things once the jam is over. Thank you again for this detailled comment! <3