As we discussed, I certainly am for 'domestic' villagers, ones that actually do your work, but may be also guards or whatnto depending on what jobs you give them. In general, I think that automation would need to be harder, however, given its benefits - something locked behind certain quests and technological advancements you mused about in the past.
I also will underline I'd like getting the villagers in the first place slightly harder as they're now showing up all the time as long there's beds. Actual conscious effort in recruitment, perhaps?
All for them dying if you won't be able to provide basic food/water to your villagers, but again, they have to be somewhat harder to acquire if that is to impact the player. What's a few deaths if people to replace them keep coming in all the time, guaranteed?
Certainly I like the idea of unique or merely rare quest/secret NPCs. I am not sure there has to be a lot work to flesh them out with unique traits, though. Slightly different stats, robot NPCs possibly using up some electricity for an hour a day instead of sleeping/eating/drinking but also requiring 'wrenching' to heal would be fine. For me, most of their value would be in that they stand out and are unique, not in any particular mechanics gimmick but I may be in minority on this one.
Certainly, as written in my wall of text in suggestions, I wouldn't mind some NPC/player customization - both in terms of looks and names!