Gorgeous style! But it's very confusing right now especially as someone who's never played cultist simulator.
-Do you see any potential if id clean up the art and maybe worked a bit on the artstyle?
Just stick with what you have right now, 's good already. Improving on the art style will come as you keep working on the game
-How does the general UI feel, any issues or annoyances you experienced?
It's alright. The UI "feels" good, the controls are intuitive and I find the events being placed on the right side of the screen comfortable to read. The camera pan is only bound to the mouse wheel too, you might as well let players use the mouse clicks to drag the camera around.
But like I said it's still a confusing game that I don't know how to play. It feels like you're talking to yourself right now instead of onboarding potential playtesters, so I think that's the area you should work on next.
-How clear are the event outcomes and your control over the results?
There's a lot of flavor text. The outcomes generally understandable, but I suggest giving each description (not just in the event outcomes) a brief "gamey" text on top of the flavor text that people can scan through. It's better for playtesters and repeat playthroughs
-What do you think about the writing?
Flowery writing to me is a struggle to read, I'm the wrong person to ask feedback on this. I will say I won't mind engaging with it as long as I know what's going on in the game, which I don't right now.
and nah, it's not a dead end. Keep working on it and we'll see.