I agree, it needs to be much more cost-effective. Someone In The Know told me that there's some attempts being made to make it more cost-effective with something called Optimism (https://twitter.com/optimismPBC) - but after looking into it, it does seem like you'd need to buy tokens. I specifically wanted this Game of Life to be driven by ETH!
You don't need to share of course but I am curious - is your contract a more "legitimate" use than mine? Something which is a genuine utility?
Thanks for reading btw!