Yeah that's fair. If you don't find the power growth in it satisfying then you won't be the only one.
I don't know if it will help at all but I can explain more about what is going on at least. MTVN is spent at a constant rate so reducing costs does make it go faster. For the stats the permanent level is just a XP bonus for the daily level until you get the STAT skill, and at first the loops are short so the daily level won't go very high and it won't be very noticable, but when you get access to more flowers and can have longer days then you can see those stats build up and your speed increase more over the day.
That was the idea anyway. If I make something else it will be easier to understand and feel progress.