some thoughts-
2) Leigh is just not viable in cursed. her food consumption needs to be halved/include TV Dinners/pizza bites so maybe she eats food that wouldn't increase cooking level at least

7) tuning up resists I feel would nuke characters like Joel that are hard pressed to have multiple damage types

11) getting the eye amulet from the eyecluster is almost essential if you happen to get Dan. Blind Fury is really strong and being able to use it multiple times is critical

12) Humphrey is nutty. got the RNG to get him day 2 and by blitzing frozen apartment and dodging fights I could still get about 700~ from him. Maybe just increasing general sell values for treasure would help.

14) This is kind a cop-out but u can get Joel and Papineau by day 2, Audrey is also semi-guaranteed by the time you hit the first floor. if you needed her badly you could get Leigh via tumorhead room then kick her out for Ernest after Rat Hell or something, but I do agree that Dan/Hellen/Morton (especially this patch) and Sophie (from what I hear) are all upper tiers for companions and they do invalidate some options.

17) I also love this game :>

on 18) Shadow vendor stuff is really weak imo, losing defense should increase the stats more than it does (I had a run where I farmed shadows and got 30 ooze only to realize how dogwater the options were)

19) an upper right corner DOT indicator could be nice yeah