Thank you so much for the feedback!
I'm currently sitting on a build of the game that addresses *some* of that (like making the stomach effects a little more clear, and pricing spikes) but I think you're right in that some of the mechanics come down to player (or in this case, mildly sadistic game dev) preference - I think there was a sort of tongue-in-cheek "progress forever marches forward!"choice in not allowing the player to completely pause the game to manage inventory, but I think I will add that as an accessibility option.
Thank you again so much for playing and for taking the time to write up such a thoughtful comment!