Valheim+ is your answer. It's a highly customizable mod to cater the game to the experience you want. My buddy and I made the following changes:

Greatly increased the amount that forges and kilns can process at once. It's not faster, but now we don't have to babysit them. We can load them up and go adventure.

2 more rows of player inventory and 10x stack sizes. We kept encumbrance the same. This game is asinine with inventory. Most of our time was just sorting it especially since there's not "quick stack into chest" or auto sort options.

50% increased stamina regen across the board. Walking around enemies for 80% of combat waiting for enough stamina to dodge/parry and swing back isn't fun.

We enjoy the game's difficulty, but not the grind. There are tons of options. Customize it how you like!