Ideally have a max number of characters/pixels before it automatically collapses the rest by default

Yes, you can get the full log with journalctl.

To have it automatically restart on failure, you can add the following to your systemd unit:

[Service]
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=5s

See this blog post for more information.

But to find the root cause of why it’s failing, you can run systemctl status <service> when it fails to get the most recent logs and hopefully an error as to why it failed.

My biggest concern is the screen and how it’s not really glass and can be scratched by your fingernails. I wouldn’t be able to enjoy the phone because I’d be worrying all the time.