The game has a narrative focus, though for what it is worth an endless mode is being developed for an upcoming major release (no dialogue/npc interaction)
More quality of life surrounding the dialogue itself will also be released soon.
I just pushed a patch covering both of these. Upon rebuilding and re-expanding the Boiler Room you'll now get a replacement worker and there's a lore snippet for the rebuild button also.
You'll notice the workers have actual names now too :)