I like the idea, and I think it could use a little more polish. The sounds are really missing. Honestly, I don't mind the AI elements, they're mostly just there to make the background look nicer.
What does bother me is that I don't really understand what I'm doing. It's not very intuitive what's happening or why. With the upgrades, I can mostly only guess what each one is supposed to do. Aside from the Appraiser Lens, I don't really understand the effect of any of the others.
I've survived multiple times and maxed out all the upgrades, so I assume that's a good sign, but I still don't really understand or feel like that was actually the point of the game.
I think it's worth taking it a little deeper and adding more feedback to the player. The daily loop could definitely be engaging, though. You could make each day a bit longer, or give the player more options to investigate the mystery behind a particular object.