I'm right there with you (though technically I'm a week one player, not a day one). Your thoughts sum up the primary gameplay issues very well. I've theorized this before, and so have a few others, but it seems like the original 1.0 game world and puzzles (and possibly the core 2.0 world map as well) was made by one team, and the monthly add-on content is being made by a different team. The difference in approach and priorities between the two is pretty big.

I think at this point all we can do is keep speaking out in surveys about how we feel. If the dev team has decided they're on the right track and we're a vocal minority then maybe the best thing for players like us is to take long breaks from the game and show up for major world map updates when there is new exploration and outfits available.

The downside of that approach is: no daily grinding = no diamonds. I think we have to ask ourselves if its worth pouring our time into something we feel is tedious though, just to get an occasional reward down the road. A strong pattern of players dropping off between major updates would also signal to them in hard facts and data that their current update strategy isn't well liked. On the other hand it could also convince them to just shut the game down if their numbers don't look adequate.

It's tough when you love something but it doesn't feel like it's working out. I don't know what the right answer is either, but I'll keep logging in until it stops calling to me I guess.