Really glad to hear you're liking Wender so far!
Regarding grinding, it is meant to be kinda moderately grindy, but I was trying to figure out ways to make it less grindy for players who would wanna progress faster. Did you try turning the furnace off? Once you've spent some time in the fog you'll start seeing rare variants of resources that give extra items and xp. There are things in the fog, but if you're horror averse you can disable spooky things in the settings as well!
What do you mean by "hold to mine stuff"? There is an upgrade that enables holding instead of having to click manually, but you do have to unlock it by leveling chopping.
I also have some puzzle/exploring ideas in mind for the future with the tree staircases!
Also good idea on the better clarity for Bob, I'll figure out a better line.
I'm also glad to hear the sorta vagueness is coming through in a positive way! I've spent a lot of time to try to make the mechanics clear, but leave the world mysterious. Some areas are a bit simple and sparse right now, still a lot of explorable content coming in the future, so I hope you'll check back now and then!
Also look out for a hotfix for the bug you found today, in case you're still stuck on the upper floor!