With the introduction of Hardcore Realms and Characters, I feel like No Rest for the Wicked could benefit from Custom Realms (similar to Custom Servers in games similar to Wicked, such as V-Rising). With Custom Servers, players could potentially tweak the gameplay in these realms to their liking. These realms could resolve some systems that players might have problems with, such as Pestilence zones, merchants and construction projects being on a real world timer, a custom Realm with a option to turn off or lower the times would allow players who do not want to wait on a timer to continue playing while keeping the timers in place in a default realm.
To keep things fair once Co Op releases, these characters will be confined to Custom Servers or strictly single-player characters, just like players cannot use a Hardcore character outside of a Hardcore realm.