I really love how this game has learned no lessons from Terraria.
I have not really been following this until recently, but it seems to me that all the things you mention are conscious decisions. I guess they are trying to appeal to a certain kind of gamer? It must be working for them.
Like, they really want you to dig to the center of that first planet (i've never found 20 fragments in the starting mine, and must have started 10 times). Why? It is so arduous!
They really expect you to just make a starting farm, but give you no pointers. They tell you that you need tilled ground when you first find a seed, but you need no less than FIVE crafting stations plus your own basic crafting interface to just get a hoe and watering can.
They are expecting a certain kind of gamer, someone who is looking for more of the same kind of generic survival crafting game that there is already a giant flood of, where you craft tools with sticks and strings.
I don't mind crafting, I think it is great. But like Sordid says: Why am I using Torches instead of LED lamps? Crafting does not have to be twigs and blocks, it could be feeding elements and organic compounds into fabbers.
They have made these choices consciously, I'm sure of it. It isn't bad design, as it has a huge audience of happy players. I'm pretty sure at this point that it is not at all designed for ME, but I'm hoping that the right combination of mods will get it there.