As a predominantly solo player, I'm really not a fan of the component system.
Yes, theoretically it lowers the baseline for entry into endgame content to a very low level. Yes, it removes the near-wipe apathy. Yes, the BP system and XP system made it much easier to crawl up to good gear if you were in a group.
But the most important aspect of both the BP system and XP system for a solo player was the sense of permanent progress. Maybe you go out and get killed. Maybe you get offlined by a bunch of twelvies. Maybe some zerg clan levels your base for shits and giggles. You've still got your BP or XP-derived knowledge. Next time, it'll be faster and easier to build up.
With the component system, it may be easier across the board to get gear, but it also makes losing a base or loot much more crippling for solo players, since they have to repeat the component grind every single time. Imagine the hell that was being a solo player trying to get BPs on a populated server. Now imagine that Day 1-2 bullshit being the norm for everyone forever. Going to see a hell of a lot more large groups camping radtowns with big sniping bases, for one.
Honestly the looting is one place where the various DayZ iterations did really well; you could find decent to good loot almost anywhere that had buildings, and there were enough locations on a sufficiently large map (as well as little provision in-game for groups) that there would always be some you could get to semi-safely. There was a variant I played based on ArmA III, don't remember the name, that added in the ability to craft storage crates. Anyone who found them could loot them and destroy them (along with their contents). It was fucking great, you'd get your baseline gear, build a box in a hidden location, then start squirreling away loot while also keeping an eye out for other peoples' stashes.
Rust needs more behavior and interactions like that. Hiding building-block notices when you don't have a plan out is a step in the right direction for balancing solo play with group play, but it's not near enough. If there was a way to actually effectively hide loot beyond the rock glitch I'd be a fan of the component system, but as is you're going to lose everything pretty much every night unless you're on a half-dead server.