The farming is a good point I did that in Asheron's Call way back in the day. Asheron's Call had the best loot system of any game I've ever played. The loot was level appropriate but it was random within ranges, so it could generate all kinds of neat stuff.
You've got your potential PHD Dissertation "HARDCORE MODE: PWNED NOOBS"
Hardcore mode is only unforgiving on other games because no other game is designed for hardcore mode to be the standard. None that I know of anyway. Although as I have already alluded to here the entire Roguelike/Roguelite genre seems to be the exception.
So what I'm envisioning is more of a turn-based roguelike MMO with a big economy linked to crypto.