Hello! Thanks for playing the game and commenting on it
Because the game is a rogue-like, starting over after failing is part of the core mechanic of the genre, it might be harsh but it is what make the genre what it is. For some type of progress to be saved the game should be a rogue-lite but it requires more work that we honestly did not have time to + it was not the idea of the game to have it to begin with. It could have been cool if we had some type of skill save or something like that, but with the time we had to make the game it was a little out of scope.
As for the abilities, I do agree that they need some more balancing and a little variety. They were added because since the game is a rogue-like you will be doing a lot of re-do's and tries, they add randomness and helps with making the game different each time you play, while also adding weight to the choices that the players makes. I still agree that they might be more interesting ones that could have been added and the balancing of those.