Tiny Speck, as many others have, I've invested many hours into this game, and had a ton of fun along the way, but as I think about this game leaving beta and really trying to be a never ending game, player burnout is going to always be an issue. I think a lot of players, including myself at some point, are going to say, "How much time am I wasting on this, even though its fun/additictive?".
I'd really like to see the collective efforts of all the right arrow/left arrow/enter key mashing somehow manifest itself into some benefit larger than the game. Someone manged to take protein folding and turn it into something enjoyable and with societal benefits. I understand you don't want to introduce something alien/out of context to the world of Ur, but maybe feats could somehow matter in a larger sense than leaderboards and img rewards. The most simple approach I can think of would be to simply tie the collective work of Glitches to charitable contributions TS would make in the real world. But really maybe there are some puzzles we can solve or tasks we could complete in game in way that fit in the world and that in aggregate would help solve some real world problems.
Its a big task TS, but you've got a lot of imagination at your disposal!