The text itself is a really easy and fun read. Even a couple thousand years later in translation, the inner chapters are hilarious, nonstop brilliance and plenty of the outer chapters are thought provoking. It got me through the pandemic.

Though it would go on to become foundational for Daoism, I'm skeptical that it was ever intended to be part of a larger tradition.

Have you read Neither Lord Nor Subject, by Bao Jingyen? It clearly and passionately makes an eco-anarchist critique of authority from a daoist angle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gs23tDAaEho