I agree on the grind aspect and I'll touch it later but the final reasoning makes absolutely no sense.
Of course games need an end goal. But the journey to that end goal is as much important as that. While some people see that journey in DD as a 'Gothic Cookie Clicker' I see something else. God damn what is it with people wanting to be over dramatic about simple things.
DD doesn't have to be this overly complex game with high depth. At it's core, it's a simple game. And contrary to what people think, what it teaches is not the mechanics and monsters. Those are just the tools necessary for the game to convey its message.
What it teaches you is that the time and effort you spend on the heroes is not something to be attached to. And this is a big slap on the face for people like me who played X-Com and finished the game with soldiers having been in 89 missions and having killed 24342 aliens.
You are not supposed to make this team of 4 destroyers from the start. You are not supposed to care for the heroes. They are another resource just like gold or deeds. If they have too many negatives, discard them. This is why stress is a mechanic in the game.
It's possible to create this team of 4 super champions who slew all the bosses themselves but the developers made sure that if you want to go through that road, the game will oppose you.
So the main issue again becomes grinding. Because a game with this idea has a time frame before people decide that playing it is not worth it. If our heroes are expendable, the game must make sure that the time needed to renew them is short. And this is the part I agree. It takes just a little bit too long.
But again, this is why xp requirements have been reduced. But for better players this never was an issue. If you lower the requirements of a mechanic, you should also see how that creates new interactions with the other mechanics. The deeds are the problem for now. I'm sure the devs will look into this soon.
Let's get back to this 'gothic cookie clicker'. Let's assume that it is indeed, a gothic cookie clicker. I don't know about you, but a gothic cookie clicker was exactly what I needed from this game. I've played around 130 hours, and I just can't stop restarting over and over again. I just like the game. I have my gripes as finishing the loop on this game is too long, but I still find myself starting over because it is fun and atmospheric. If this is cookie clicker, I want more of it. But oh right, on cookie clicker you click on a cookie. Nothing else. No art, no atmoshpere, no tension, no catharsis. What a stupid statement this is to what was overall a good review.
The idea that the devs of this game have no clue about game mechanic design is a theme this critique pushes and it infuriated me because it's not true.
I actually wrote some more stuff but I deleted them. Maybe I'll write them later.