It seems the major obstacle right now is that the AI gets a bit wonky after a while. What if you threw in an AI reset, temporarily, that clears whatever built-up command and priority queues exist, reevaluates every task to be performed and the workers available to perform them, and starts things back up? You could put it on an automatic timer, or expose a command widget to the player (possibly disabling it for some non-zero amount of time after it is activated, so players don’t just spam it pointlessly).
I realize at least some of the issue is deadlocks in AI behavior decisions, which would probably recur even after a reset. Even a small amount of time, however, during which the villagers are doing something useful, instead of simply becoming eternally pointless, would be a huge increase in playability. It would be nice to finish a house. insert smiley face which apparently I can’t insert because I’m new insert frowny face