Yeah I completely agree with you on the death penalty but by the time I realized it I didn't have enough time to redesign the game around a lighter penalty. As far as time spent waiting at the upgrade button the idea was for you to not do that because it takes so long and just go back out again never spending more than the time to fill up your life again but maybe that didn't shine through well enough. If I continue this game at all after the jam there are a lot of things I'd like to rework for sure. I would encourage you to give it another shot and try to have the next upgrade at the upgrade button before the last one runs out of uses that way there is no waiting.