My original goal was for different players to come away from the wilderness with slightly different discoveries, but you're both making a good point about how that clashes with the completionist structure the rest of the game establishes. I'm a completionist with incremental games myself, so I can definitely see why leaving permanent bonuses behind would feel bad even if the game says they're optional.
I'm looking at reworking it rather than just adding clearer warning text. The direction I'm considering is making every imprint eventually obtainable, while moving most of their mechanical value into a shared permanent bonus with diminishing returns. That way each discovery still matters, the last few aren't hiding some unique must-have bonus, and someone who genuinely wants to hunt down everything still can.
I'd still keep discoveries rare enough that wilderness finds remain long-term surprises rather than something you're expected to clear before moving on. I need to work through the numbers before I lock the exact system in, though.