With the changes to A1 and A2, the game feels much better and honestly enjoyable. I still think A1 is too much of a slog though. Mainly regarding the gold cost. The time it takes to get to A1 compared to A2 is wildly different since you have the gear already upgraded and you get the minor Ascension bonus on top of it.
For a brand new player the entry into the "fun" part of the game takes too long imo, and this is the gold required for A1. If that gets reduced a fair bit, it'll be more accessible for newer players to keep going, as opposed to seeing the huge gold requirement and they give up.
I can't be sure, but after hitting A3 and getting 2 uncommon items, I feel like something is off? Before I made my first uncommon item I was getting around 2.14 mil gold per kill. I upgraded an item and it went down to 1.8 mil per kill. After upgrading my 2nd item to uncommon (the ring which gave a 3rd bonus of 400+% exp) I noticed I was leveling *SLOWER* than usual. I also unlocked a 4th pet slot with the mimic, once I did so and used it, I'm still around the 1.8 mil per kill lol.