Has anyone completed a game on hardcore mode?

As the title said, I want to know if someone has completed this game on hardcore. Because I genuinely don't see how you can do it on default settings since I've not gotten past manufacturing and died multiple times in the office sector. Yes most of these deaths are because Exor monks are extremely overtuned on this difficulty but there's a lot of things that can kill you later on that I don't know if it's worth the time you invest in this.

The time portion is probably the most egregious because if I don't give myself lifes, I have to grind the skills all over again. I played around with increasing my exp gain, thinking that, if I can die really fast, I should learn stuff fast. But it feels cheaty to do so. Yes i'm getting more fortitude but i'm speeding through every other skils.

So I want to know if anyone else who has attempted hardcore if they have some tips. Should I just not care about the purity of my run and just have increased exp?