i can't say i have any suggestions on the pacing thing. the biggest concern i had is that in the begining it felt like i was scrambling constantly to manage the resources i had and trying to juggle between recipes to keep the money flowing. after automation it was more like clicking the same 2 things for a few minutes and the game was suddenly over. perhaps a system where you have to keep moderating the recipes and swapping them to optimize income might improve engagement and still allow for great automation. i know most idle games deal with that buy just increasing the cost of everything as you go.