Wow, thanks for all that. Yes, I'm exploring a 'computer science' type issue where my loops are looping and slowing processing down. I'll consider adding a lot of what you mentioned, but not sure I'll have time considering my upcoming work schedule this week. All great ideas for sure. I originally was only intended this to be a quick prototype, but with your ideas it is shaping up to possibly be a pretty large endeavor!
( by the way, I did locked levels and such in another one of my jam submissions - https://lostwords.itch.io/otb ) ( As you'll see that is a little more than a 2d grid game.)