Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts! Yeah combat seems to be a bit of a mixed bag. I've seen a lot of people struggle with it but I also totally agree with you in the sense that, once you know what to do, there no longer is any real challenge to standard encounters.
In truth I've been working on a major overhaul behind the scenes that I think will be the secret ingredient to bringing together the various systems in a more cohesive way and bring a lot more strategy and complexity to combat.
In regards to the money however the demo is absolutely skewed in your favor compared to the plans for the final game. Especially since human enemies that drop gold didn't exist for quite a while so you didn't have many options.
I'm glad you've been enjoying the game and I hope you look forward to future updates!