Honestly the issue here may be a lack of familiarity with how bare repos work? If that's right, it could be worth experimenting with them if only to learn something new and fun, even if you never plan to use them. If anything it's a good way to learn about git internals!
Anyway, apologies for the pissy coda at the end, I've deleted it as it was unnecessary. Keep on having fun!
How do you define grind? I went from zero to sixty hours in Rimworld in the span of a few weeks and IMO it plays quite well on the deck (not perfect, but surprisingly well for a traditionally M&K PC game).