I concur with pretty much everything you've said, however I wanted to add 2 things.

My mental model for playing has settled on "paying" for gold/wands with HP. As you progress though a level you will inevitably get hit by monsters and evironmental effects and there has never been a game as stingy as this one for letting you replace lost health.

The "hideously overpowered weapons" you mentioned are the best part of the game. Finding spell components and building a crazy wand give this this game a fantastic (and fantastical) power curve :)