thank you. having read through now and played some with the new info, i have some notes for feedback.

 1. having the soil tier system so limited to the player's clicking is really a bummer, especially expanding into more desolate types. as is, it is unbearably slow to even get lush soil with a fully established grove on top of it with full oak trees, and having to manually clear new ground and then work it to higher tiers is just exhausting and really a turn off for a game about establishing an ecosystem like this, at some point it should be able to handle itself and grow or even surpass our capabilities once we get it set up.

2. plant culling is currently very clunky for lack of a better word. having no options to ever get it other than clearing swaths of growth is a bummer but can be worked around, but the evolution system is what throws me off mostly. the main use of the specialized plants seem to either be to survive disasters, survive inhospitable land until it can become more lush, or refill nutrients to the land,  both of which are not really done. for example, a heat resistant grass or small plant does nothing to protect the more valuable plants on the tile that cant be specialized in such a way, or even past themselves, and that also means you have to basically kill and regrow everything each disaster or evolve everything which  is just not a good solution.

3. just a bug, automatic clicking does not seem to include the area of affect upgrade so it's practically useless.

now, for recommendations, feel free to pick or ignore any of this, it is your project after all and i am merely saying what i would personally enjoy more in a game like this so no offence intended at all. i would have specialized plants have more of an effect on their environment and tile, such as deep rooted ones that get their own trickle of resources also fuel the soil partly, or have more resistant plants act as insulators, which could go with larger groups as well as forests are known to both keep in heat when cold and act as cooler areas when it is hot, in general if you work that much, including culling your own growths for them, then they should be more than just a stop gap until other life can fill it. also, i would largely divest soil improvement from clicking entirely, our domain should be lifer and setting up an ecosystem and not past that, if anything lock it behind will like other big powers to change the environment, this also goes for the cloud tools such as deeper rooted plants pulling up water to create small ponds or pond tiles to then make more clouds and underwater plants, allowing life to do that heavy lifting such as the dune plant specifically working to revitalize sand or sandy soil or a tap root bush to bring up groundwater to create ponds and onward as examples of a purposeful terraformer plants to infuse vitality and change the composition of the environment. give animals more variety and a larger role in advancement in general like burrows that help surrounding soil nutrients or other symbiotic behaviors other than just dying for a small boost such as helping in the spreading of seeds and thus terraforming. insects are largely ok as is, even if the nerf to their biomass and thus upgrades cripples a lit of the middle game speedy progress, all i would want is more variety in use if anything. finally, i would expand the 'story' progression as it were, such as what the Everwood actually is, and more selfhood and characterization from our character as it, perhaps the original root of life that started it all here on earth either naturally or from the stars, and what caused the current barren state of the world such as a world war and where humans are now be it extinct or my favorite as out among the stars which would open up later interaction and missions, kinda like the game terraforming titans also on itch, and more structure to the map progressions such as moving to desert once you have the starting meadow level done, like a proper campaign with stages whether it ends with earth or beyond as life wished to reach. if you want to keep the personal map part for prestige currency then i would make them optional to the side to help the main game or even acting as a background boost as the world is revitalized.

All in all, great work and very promising, i would just like to see more identity to the story, reliance on setting up an evolving ecosystem than brute forcing everything, and just more depth and progression as a whole. I'm happy to play it and have any role in supporting it or giving feedback for improvement.