Greetings, thank you for your feedback!
Here is the response from our game designers: lack of active pause mechanic (i.e. pausing time and still being able to look around and perform actions) is an intentional game design as we want in-game night time to feel intense and dynamic, so being able to manipulate the factory without time restrictions will negate this feeling. But in the future we will consider possibility for the player to slow down the flow of time for better gameplay diversity.
Best regards, In Progress Studio.