Some other ideas:
-> Using money we earn to build our own stronghold. Each portion of it could heavily train skills, giving us a mid-late game way to heavily build up skills in a run.
-> Or allow us to do something like Raven Rock (ES: Morrowind) where we manage a town and make choices on how it develops.
-> Give us a way to send something from a previous loop, into the next loop. So say you acquire the Purification Potion, but lack the time to purify the tree. So you send it into the next loop, so that you have it prepared and now all you have to do is defeat the Satyrs again. It would mean skipping a lot of skill development that would be used to normally gain that potion though.
-> Allow us to choose a profession at new-loop start. This profession doubles XP gains for a particular pair of activities. So the Farmer, might get doubled Farming and doubled Precision skill gains. The Knight, might get doubled Combat and Crafting. The Merchant, might get doubled Speaking and Reading. Etc... This would help to provide a focus for our runs, by letting us specialize into specific tasks. Then at the next loop, you can choose the same profession, or a different one.
-> Race exclusive secondary options. If you choose elves, you get special extra options for some activities. Maybe instead of needing to kill the Satyrs, the elves have a secret path that lets you sneak the purification potion to the tree and then it kills the Satyrs for you. Or maybe if you choose goblins, and you kill the fairy, their ingenuity lets you craft two of the potions, instead of one, but each is at 50% effectiveness. That kind of thing.
-> Allow us to invest in things in one loop, that persists across other loops. Say we have the ability to buy a magical farm. Any actions taken at the farm, persists between loops. So any farming you do there, you get persistent xp each round... so say you did 14 rounds of creating carrots. Then every loop, you'd earn 14 rounds of carrots farming XP... or more, if you spent more time farming there.