We felt the same, and agreed that if we were to pursue this game beyond the span of the game jam we would likely switch to a points-buy system so that making it further means you can purchase more upgrades. For the purposes of the jam we went with something simpler and decided game speed settings could help soften the issue somewhat (I consider it a completely valid playstyle to just set the game to max speed and focus on dying a lot to gather up the passives!).
Appreciate the critiques, and thanks for playing!