I don't know if the update changed the energy requirement for the early chapters or not, but back in the day you could get through those chapters really fast. I actually like it when the story missions take a lot of energy to complete. The full story (to date) isn't that long, so it prevents players from reaching the end too fast.

And before anyone starts attacking me for saying that and say the developers should churn new chapters out faster, I agree with you.
But it doesn't look like there's a huge team of artists working on the game, so I understand why it takes a long time to come out with new chapters.

I like those QoL suggestions mentioned in the post above, especially the reset time for pachinko and the button to max the stats.