I can understand the philosophy behind the raw stat upgrades, of increased starting levels and values. There's already so much power progression opportunities with just knowledge, figuring out what weapons scale with what, what sort of weapons you want to get for your playstyle, and how to kite and bait the enemies since they all emphasize movement and avoiding getting swarmed or just surviving.

But, I don't like the pace of meta upgrades being gated by achievements.

It makes me kind of dread each run, knowing that I can't boost myself or make much meaningful progress. Extra notches on a bar that will eventually get me a tiny bit of meta currency that I maybe can use on something does not make me happy.

I would really like something different, a hybrid meta progression system where even if you suck at the game and can't achieve the bigger milestones (upgrade a weapon, level 200, full clear), you can still buy upgrades and increase your power to better your chances the next run.

It could be a system where you have a meta currency (call it "chrono fragments" or "data fragments" or something) that you can use to purchase upgrades. Then, the achievements will unlock the higher levels of meta upgrades, or increase the maximum levels that they can be upgraded.

So, players like me who suck and feel like the enemies scale too fast, too soon can have some way to get a little further each time. Then, there will also be a predictable difficulty/balance curve, since players can only get so powerful before they have to play better/learn the meta systems.