There is a fine line, absolutely. I found that line for me last week when we made jerky and I did reaper dust on half - way too much.

This sauce isn't an issue as far as thats concerned thanks to the pineapple and tamarind, but the peppers and all the other stuff in the ferment add their own distinction - and I'm a big fan of the straight pepper flavor.

The hottest I make thus far is straight reaper and I bank solely on that beautiful pepper flavor to round out the heat (a shot of vinegar helps)

Edit: The longer one eats hotter and hotter a tolerance builds and will allow you to taste more of the pepper as the heat becomes less of an issue. Take reapers.. few folks that have tried them realize they're actually very sweet and fruity before the heat kicks in. After a bit though, that sweetness sticks around linger and the heat is manageable.

If you want to try a simplified sweet heat sauce for cheap I'd say buy one at popeyes. It's 30 cents if I remember correctly. A young negro who was properly dressed, pants up, belt on, polite, was surprisingly the shift leader and recommended it to me after I joked "are you going to rob me" and he chuckled and said "this one is on me."

I don't interact with negros unless I have to at a service food desk but if I remember correctly (it's been about 2 years now) was named Jarmaine De'Shawn Bartholmew the Third Junior.

I remember because he looked like a 4 star general with three nametags stacked on top each other on his uniform to incorporate the whole name and a fourth one that said "shift leader".