That sounds great! Bear in mind that the tech tree should be a culture tree too, so NPC/camp upgrades can be split across multiple cultures. For example, one which specializes in forestry, herbalism, alchemy, wooden constructions; another which specializes in stone, mining, metallurgy, etc. This doesn't need to be handled at the beginning, but eventually we will have multiple tech trees under different paths.

yeah, like if you have a Forest Folk culture tree, you can gather Forest Folk Skill Points through activities like beekeeping, gathering herbs, hunting, tracking, or fighting in forest terrain. Then you can spend those points in the Forest Folk Culture Tree to unlock perks related to those activities. There would also probably be items like Forest Folk Yew Shortbow, which also provides skill points in that tree, and benefits from relevant perks.