I'm getting alright at self-imposing 5+ letters, I definitely think I wanna see if I can bump it up to six. (This is still on hard mode — I backed up my old save, hence 384 800 being "new!")
One unexpected problem is that if you're sitting on a valid word when the timer runs out, it automatically submits it for you, and I've quit out of several runs without saving my score because I accidentally made a word that was too short by my rules. If it happens again I guess I can just accept a couple thousand extra points and let the timer run out on the round after.
For now though I have got to put the damn game down and go outside oh my god