My first loaf! Advice for tweaking?

Made my first ever loaf of sourdough yesterday and overall I’m pretty pleased with how it went! Hoping to tweak things a little but there seem to be so many factors, I’m not sure what to consider changing to suit my fancy.

This dough was about 60% hydration and combined weight of all my ingredients came to about 950g – I also used 50g of rye flour in this

I preheated my Dutch oven at 475 for 30 min, then put in my loaf on a piece of parchment, baked covered for 15 min and was going to bake uncovered for 25, but ended up taking it out at 20 because she was looking too dark, especially on the bottom.

I am personally not a fan of a suuuper thick crust, and I didn’t like that the bottom of my loaf was just on the edge of being burned (still tastes ok but any longer would have been too much). I’d also like to see if I can get a little bit more open crumb, but that can wait!

To avoid the dark bottom: Should I consider a lower oven temperature, especially with a non enameled, dark, cast iron Dutch oven? If so, what time/temp might I try?

For thinner crust: I’ve heard this is influenced by how long you leave the lid on. Longer covered baking time leaves the crust pliable longer and allows more expansion before you set the crust by removing the lid… Is this true? Any timing recommendations? Personally I prefer my bread to be more golden brown that fully brown haha. I’ve also been wondering if you can just bake covered for ‘x’ amount of time and then just eyeball the crust to the doneness you like – or would that result in underbaking?

Also, as someone who is probably going to dabble, is there any equipment y’all consider a must have, whether you’re a pro or a beginner? I don’t have anything special, just a bowl lined with a tea towel as my banneton and I used a bread knife to score. No fancy whisks or anything either!

Any advice anyone has to offer is greatly appreciated!