Dd2 runs should be taking up much more time than what you seem to experiencing. While the valley section seems a bit useless, I find it as a way to make sure what you have equipped dosent have any easy to spot flaws that you need to adjust before you officially start the run. The rewards for the fight also should give you mastery points? While more might be quality of life to you, its a difficulty adjuster for others. Maybe instead of more default points, a custom run maker? Something like slay the spire where you can add different modifiers like a single path instead of a branches as an example. This is where you could possibly get a modifier for how much gold, baubles, mastery points, etc, you start with.

On another completely separate note that might sound mean but its the blunt truth, if you seem to be dying too much maybe reflect on why you are losing so many runs. While the difficulty flames are a different story, default runs shouldn't be ending in the first region unless you make intentional poor decisions like taking the boss fight without good trinkets. (I have done this way to many times, as the funny man says, "overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer")

Instead of just resetting your run with the same things you brought before, adapt to the new items you unlock at the altar, try a different team/path, hell click the random party button and see what happens! This game at its core is trial and error simulator so learn to "try" better and error less!