Hey David,
Gold bar balancing is an economic issue. The game is playable without any fees but with the intention to make players pay to be able to cover the costs. So apparently there was more premium flooded into the game as people paid for it. Balancing this is a thing you'll find in nearly every game, especially the "free to play" ones. The real value people pay with is usually "time", either for real or shortcutted by money. The game itself seems easy to play if you don't want to have it competitive.
The cook's hiring order should afaik be reset with the next patch, as Cookie mentioned here (german feedback). I think it will happen with the next patch.
There was a misbalance in the credits income for the players, where too much money was gained out of the Quaiside bar. So a ticket was put in instead of two credits prizes. Not sure if there will be a more valuable replacement in a foreseeable time. For the moment you'll just win nothing but won't lose anything either.
Same for the production rewards: there were too many items in the game. In addition the rewards consists of more than just the item(s) for the single player, consider this. The general transfer (player's fish to company's reputation and credits) is the main tradeoff made with the assignments. There will be some adjustements though.