So far I mostly like it, but I'd like to see more done with the established fruit mechanics. If this is the start of a general fruit rework, I sincerely hope that (at least) berry breeding and fruit tree grafting become implemented as vanilla features. Grafting is as simple as allowing cuttings from a different plant to be added to established fruit trees. Hypothetically, the knife tool would be used to create a notch in the established tree and a wedge in the cutting. Then a hammer could be used to place the cutting on the established tree, with each tree able to receive 1 cutting per year with a limit. This would both increase future yield for each tree and make exploration more rewarding.
Currently, berry plants generate with a 15% chance for a trait. As each berry plant can have up to 4 traits, a simple statistics-based genetics system isn't too far fetched. Right now, for each trait generated in a plant, there is a 60% debuff chance and a 40% buff chance. A Mendelian genetics-based generational breeding system could be fun to work with.
Right now, cultivated berry plants are resource-intense with relatively little reward. Exploring for resources is already a very big part of the early game, and bushes are relatively common. Establishing a large, diverse berry patch in the early game would be far more rewarding if you could breed and then clone the ultimate berry bush for wine (and therefore aqua vitae) production in the late game. For someone using the inbuilt world edit system to keep the same base through game versions as early access progresses, this would be very rewarding.
