Thank you for the advice! Sadly I’m playing on Switch so probably can’t use the mods - however I appreciate your insights into the value in playing without the mines, that reassures me it’s a valid strategy/play style.
The biggest factor that causes me stress in Stardew is actually the time restrictions - trying to maximise the days for example. This is a me problem obviously but it seems to be somewhat common.
I’m tempted to play again on iOS since I own it there as well and try to be extremely casual and not really care about my progress.