Thank you for your insights!
I really wanted the game to have two different stages but I also wanted them to blend in a good way.
I also generally strive not make my games so not to waste players time. I consider their time precious and I try to make the games responsive and interesting. The main way to accomplish this so far has been to work on fluent controls and snappy movement. But I now also try to balance the general gameplay as well, which is a lot harder to get right. I will keep working on it though.
I'm glad you liked the speed upgrade. It seems like other players don't even notice the speed increase, but the 20% is actually making dodging the boss a bit easier. And the possibility to smashing out bombs also increase by the speed, but the control decreases since you have to time all inputs a bit more precise.
I am working on fixing up bugs and making some polish for the post jam release. If you liked the menu in the jam version you might like the post jam release even more, since I have put a few hours into making it more appealing.
Thank you for playing!