Honest Restart
I may not know a bunch of different critic nuances or simply be wrong or not accurate. But IMO, you need to stop complicating things and focus primarily on balance.
Obviously, the framework, mechanics, interaction are ready, but they are not working well.
Therefore, in deadline mode to Steam, and as an Indie-studio
, they don’t have the ability to balance the whole game.
Then you need to single out and balance each Difficulty separately.
Yes it is so “divide and rule”.
“Tutorial + Beginner” should explain and interest. All this can be done using simple examples without delicate balance with ignoring minor inconsistencies. Give a general idea of “where and why we are going”.
After the “Tutorial + Beginner” is ready as a “great product”, we open access to the next step.
And so “Veteran”, (which could be completed, if it does not interfere with the Beginner before Steam), will already require work on balancing, eliminating inconsistencies, with a minimal introduction of new mechanics and/or changing old ones. But the main requirement is the obligation that it is a “great product”.
Yes, on the Steam release, the Hero and Legend difficulties will not be available in the game.
This will be an Honest Restart (Ready - Available and Working, Not Ready - Closed).
(IMO these levels need to be balanced with the Community +Modders +Modding Tools.)