I've got 340 hours in this. Anything under 100h is just a demo. The timer isn't a mobile trick, it's the entire point. You want patient refinement? Go offline and learn the broth stage timers instead of dicking around with every tare combo. Every recipe is doable within the countdown if you stop treating the first hour like a sandbox. I've failed shops too. Then I adjusted. That's called a management sim. Skill issue. The reviewer got it right because they saw the loop, not the countdown. Come back when you've cleared NG+7 on SL1, then we can talk about premium currency shortcuts.

I get why you refunded, but I don't think the timer is predatory on purpose. It might just be rough because the game is still tagged as Early Access on Steam. Looking for a config file makes sense, but if failure is hardcoded, the real issue is that the game gives you zero room to mess around. The countdown rushes you without even explaining if losing the shop just puts you in debt or completely ruins the save. For now, try treating your first runs as throwaways. Cook two broths at once so the timers overlap. It's annoying, but it works until the dev adds a sandbox mode.

Just buy the skip item with premium currency. Paid for it and got right back to experimenting.

Timer's the whole game. Config file? Keep dreaming, it's early access.