I’ve recently been toying with the idea of cross-pollinating this game with Stafford’s Pendragon. This solves three issues I see in Godbound:

Roll high vs (21 – stat) and then, uh, compare margin of success to see who wins…
FIX: Roll under, highest wins is one of the most elegant game mechanics of all time.
OSR proclivities means at level 1 get ready to swing and miss, a lot….
FIX: Pendragon’s combat means something always happens because someone always wins each exchange.
No social or emotional mechanics makes Jack a dull boy.
FIX: Pendragon’s traits and passions and the bonkers behavior of Mallory’s knights perfectly fit (my personal conception of) a tale if divine hubris and calamity.

Not remotely intimating you need to do this to make the game successful. I’ve just been missing these musings over the last month and then along came your post like a lightning rod.