Wow! This update really fixed all the issues I had with the previous version, thank you! The pencil sharpening feels much smoother/quicker, and because of it, I felt myself engaging with the various mechanics much more. I'm at the point now where I'm torn between upgrading Mercer to collect faster, to make my pencils worth more, whether to automate more, it feels like the game is more "in harmony" with itself now.
One thing is that when I bought the "Yellow #2 Souper Sweeper" they seem to pick up "Pine Pencil Shavings" first and "Yellow #2" second.
Another is that after I upgraded the playground to have a second kid dropping pencils, they appeared on the far side of the playground, and didn't leave that area. This sort of 'softlocked' me where the far kid would drop TONS of pencils and that seemed to make the nearer kid's pencils decompose MUCH faster, so I couldn't really get pencils to make money to upgrade Mercer so he could go get the trove of pencils much further away. I fixed it by forcing Mercer to return until he went towards the nearby pencils, and even spawning in more kids they all appeared on the far side of the playground, so it was a bit frustrating to have happen.
Also I think the Pine Pencil Conveyor Belt is broken, my game shows a can at the very top of it, and it makes a moving animation, but no money is added and the can never moves.
Other than that the game is MUCH better and I even saw the demo all the way to the end, good work! It's much more engaging and fun with this update!