Which buildings do you consider to be optional?

Barbershop is fine, I use a 2x2 with 1 chair and one overseer by themselves.

Disable all jobs and turn off all sleep (or so) and just leave them, they'll clear your injuries after a couple days, then you can reassign them.

For chapel, one thing I've found is trouble is building an altar. Without one (and if your colony isn't too spawling) a few workers should be fine as they can only do Take Confession (I've had 2 people covering 50 people in v47)

Also, I think you should turn off all job filters as well.

 

Vicars and diplomats do tend to haul things rather than doing their jobs yes. However once you disallow diplomats from hauling, they do start doing diplomacy, rather than chatting or eating food.

Even with an altar, confessions do seem to get taken with a large enough work crew.

 

Well yeah, if you just throw more labor at a problem....


I'll try to test and see if the pub was fixed in/by 47A.

 

That is how I started the writing the post in the first place, but decided to scrap that in favor of being true to the title I had chosen.

 

Wait a minute... so more than one person can be a Vicar or Bartender?
Well crap, I wish i'd known that sooner. I've been keeping those jobs solo for the longest time.

 

I like the trade post because the traders end up fighting fishpeople and bandits along the way, it's pretty hilarious.

Furthermore, your foreign office can also be used to spawn traders much faster than the RNG gives them to you. Though... frequently the trade goods never reach me as traders get owned by bandits.