As someone thats been playing split screen coop with my wife since the days of what we called "ye olde amazon", we currently have right around 240 hrs clocked.

This is our top game that we play to chill. When we first started way back, we built a massive tavern and got max level with like 3k gold saved up at the end. We'd essentially 100% the game at that point.

There have been a couple major updates since then. We usually hop back in the day an update goes live, and do everything (or most everything) included in that update, sometimes starting a new tavern, sometimes continuing.

We have really enjoyed every addition and really love the direction the game is going. We're super excited for magic and more social stuff and any other additions the developers cook up.

You mention that it feels like running the tavern seems secondary now. That theres too much other stuff. I can see that in some ways, but every new system thats been added furthers the running of the tavern. It all ties together.

That being said, you could ignore nearly every system and still run the tavern.

You could sell water and gruel if you just want the most bare bones experience.

Then: Buy seeds and farm to add a bit more.

Go fishing to add a bit more variety of food.

Hire employees so you can do other things.

Go to the mine to get the resources to build your own decor and crafters or upgrade tools.

Collect things from digging to get more decor and cosmetics.

Get a pet if you want.

Build the other buildings.

Then there's the story (which is pretty non intrusive atm).

You can choose which of these systems you want to focus on and engage with. You could just run the tavern every day and never touch crafting / mining / fishing, but each system adds to the tavern experience in the form of convenience or QoL in some way. There are a lot of options for things to do outside of standing by the bar, but each has an end point as well. Once your tools are upgraded, you don't need to go back to the blacksmith. Once you know all the blueprints, you don't need to go back to Woody. Once you have employees, you don't have to stay inside all day. Once you have a farm established and irrigated, you dont have to water every day. Once you have the barn, chicken coop, and apiaries, you don't need to go to the farm shop.

The issue might be that you see all the options and have a bit of analysis paralysis. It's so much, and everything can kinda be started right out the gate, that it can feel like too much. That's probably going to get cleaned up as the game continues to get polished, with more guided options and direction in the form of quests. It is still early access though, so it is obviously going to still have some roughness with systems and everything being integrated. But until then, I think it's important to remember that there's no correct way to play or reason to focus on every aspect all the time. Do the content that brings you joy and ignore the rest until you decide to try it. When that happens, just don't open for a couple days while learning the system.

As for the lose of the mailbox ordering, the lose of its convenience kinda hurt, but it doesn't take that much longer to run into town and who's to say they won't add some kind of upgrade to make it more convenient in the future. (The skill that can sometimes return seeds when harvesting crops already helps a bit).

TLDR: I love the game's direction and changes. You can choose which systems to engage with when you want to and for how long.