Get out of my head! You basically predicted half of my roadmap for the Wink!
I'll try and answer all your concerns, I hope I didn't miss anything!
Lewdness indicator: Actually, the game had a lewdness bar until I split lewdness into both arousal and lewdness, and I co-opted the lewdness bar for arousal instead. I'll see about bringing it back in a new way...
The second pass on the Wink: Once I drop the exploration and subsequent combat update, I am circling back to do a polish pass on the early locations and features. I hope to implement many similar ideas to what you're thinking the Wink should be. I definitely get you on the nudity too; I thought it'd be something I'd circle back to faster, but as is, letting Sable wander around naked with zero reaction is jarring. I’m looking into patching that specific glitch so she stays clothed until I have the proper "public nudity" reaction events coded in.
Regarding stress at The Wink: Even if Sable loves the attention, 6 hours of waitressing in heels is still... 6 hours of waitressing in heels. She gets tired! I kept the stress mechanics in because if I remove them, players will just 24/7 grind the job without stopping. It’s a gameplay balance thing, gotta force you to go home eventually!
The Gym: It feels slow on purpose right now. I didn't want to make it easy and have to nerf it later. Right now with the gym being the only source of athletics XP, it does feel tedious. I hope that it smooths out naturally in the future with more ways to gain athletics XP, but I'll keep an eye on buffing it too. The upcoming exploration update already adds more ways to get athletics XP, and I have further plans for physical activities in further updates that generate athletics XP. (Swimming at the beach, anyone?)
The Kettle: The $3,000 upgrade isn't the "End of the Game." (I mean it is, currently!, but:) In my mind, it’s basically the "End of the Tutorial." It feels weird now as a standalone cliffhanger, but I'm hoping it makes perfect sense once the content that follows it is implemented.
The White Flash: (I'm showing my age here!) Okay, you caught me. I grew up on (and still mostly play) 90s VNs where every climax looked like a supernova. I didn't realize how dated/annoying that was until you pointed it out! I’m going to replace the flashbang with something much cooler (and easier on the eyes).
The Job Offer: I am seriously flattered that you’d want to jump into the code mines with me. That means a lot. For right now, though, I’m keeping this a solo hobby project.
Thanks again for the massive feedback list!