this one felt like a cross between waldemar's game and aria's poison rpg, where movement is really important and actively hostile to you.
i think i agree with the slightly less punishing scorps would make the desert areas a bit more interesting. i found that one little corner toward banzu where you must walk over two sand patches both thrilling and horrifying.
i would like to say that the one time on a near-winning run that i crossed a tiny bit of desert after killing a field slime, just next to the oasis, too, supposedly rerunning the encounter clock... i won the lottery and got the fabled "immediate next step is also an encounter" blessing of an iron scorp. i'd like to think this was intentional and hard-coded into my copy.
e: i do think that this is an improvement on your goals for waldemar's, ftr!