Hello there!
Thanks for the detailed feedback :)
Yes, we have had our fair share of feedback on the Reserve and if we'd had more time and playtest would have worked something else out. We tested things like "Every 1 or 6 is a point for your reserve" but that made it overflow and didn't feel great... Perhaps for a 1.1 we will work something else out? The Problem with spending successes on it is, that you trade in one sucess for 1/2 successes and especially we wanted to have it not too much of an mathematical hussle to be like. But the Reserve is working a tad better on paper than in reality.
The idea behind the secondary Objectives is, that they have a significant result for the story and the objectives, some will delete a goals armor (hard 1 or 2 i.e.) and thus make it much more achievable, some will be a trap and thus a great story revelation (look at the three piglets), which did work actually great in the playtests and brought a lot of laughter! I guess, you need a certain perspective for the game to work, if you just want to rush, an story-centred ruleset might jsut not be the thing - but yes, I get your fear for that :)
Again, thanks for your feedback and perhaps GSU will land on your table somewhere in the future too :)
Cheers
Marvin