holy moly that's a lot of maths involve XD, but I agree with the light sandbox one (I'll enjoy it if there's no hard grinding involved) which is a great idea when approaching the S2 of the WCA.
and can't argue of WITHER being popular y'know with her traits and personality, it really makes one very curious of what happened to her in the past. and Also no surprises NOOK being toe to toe with WITHER when it comes to popularity. as for the RPG/battle mechanics, yeah big NO on that one seems kind of out of place but you might return to that one at a later seasons/chapters where there are some choices that fighting is the only option.
In regards to sandboxes, I hope you have enough content and success on your first release ^^
Also NOOK numba WAN!