Should I keep playing...?

[gracecstamps]

Overall I enjoy this game, but I ran into a few things that have made it feel tedious. I wonder if my expectations were skewed to begin with, I'm just not far enough along in the game, or do I just need to be patient and something is in the works? Would love insight from others who have played as I'm not sure if I should invest more time or just stop playing at this point.


A few hitches I've run into:

1. No one got sick. I just completed Year 1 and neither my family nor my character caught a disease. I was under the impression that illness and inoculation played a big role in the game and I purposely did not get inoculated to see what would happen. But nothing. Not sure if the villagers died from illness but every funeral invite I received was for elderly people. Is this normal? Does sickness become more prevalent after Year 1?
   
2. Are there more discoverable areas? I have access to the mermaid cove and the tree stump house in the mines but are there any undiscovered areas to work towards?
   
3. Relationships feel similar. I doubt the difficulty of building relationships changes as the game continues, but still curious as to how others feel about the relationships in this game. I thought they were a major factor in gameplay but the characters all feel similar. You can be friends with everyone as long as you do a few tasks for them and chat—no one feels all that unique. I do like that characters have different traits—for instance I'm married to a drunkard—but I don't see these traits reflected in any of the characters actions. Like if I'm married to the town drunk it'd be interesting if she would go on a bender and spend all our money or just stop going to work for a while.
   
4. Are there relationship-specific scenes or tasks? I do not mean marriage or getting gifts in the mail. Can you unlock other attributes, like areas of a character's house or an event if you become close to them? I.e., if you're besties with the fishmonger will they take you fishing? I'm at max relationship with almost everyone in the town except the children so I'm guessing the answer may be no...?
   
5. Are there goals outside of the primary? Any other big tasks that pop up outside of Limbo? The local quests can get a bit tedious. Any chance we're asked to upgrade a municipal building or run a seance etc. etc.

I don't want it to seem like I dislike this game—I'm very impressed with the concept, style, and story. But I'm starting to feel like I've run out of things to do/work towards when I don't just feel like grinding.