I can see not wanting a totally realistic game - heck, your torches would burn out and you'd have to replace them.
But spaceship fuel as an in-game restriction is a good thing because it creates an objective.
It's like needing food or water in a game - most of the time you'll just have food and water. But sometimes the supply may be limited or you're stuck without a supply and you desperately need to get some. Instant gameplay objective. And it evolves from the gameplay organically, like seeking shelter.
Harsh weather could affect weak shelter forcing you to upgrade your building materials. Or build smaller shelters.
I think the value I'm describing is enjoyment of "overcoming reasonable adversity". The enjoyment of exploration would fall under "accumulation and advancement" and "experiencing novelty." These are all legitimate types of "fun" and it's totally possible for a lot of people to experience more enjoyment from one thing and only frustration with another.
And there's no sense trying to argue that the game should cater more to one player's enjoyment types than anothers'. Nor is it worthwhile to say that some types of enjoyment are better or that people should change.
That said, I'm surprised normal exploration doesn't yield more than enough fuel. Seems like only barging around in your ship burning fuel would result in not having any fuel. If that's untrue, then exploration needs to yield more fuel.
So maybe the game should have a setting that skips some of the grinding, perhaps just by decreasing costs of things. In a multiplayer environment the server admin would have to set the grind level.
//
As for surface chests having loot, why do they even? C'mon, it's been 39 years since D&D came out and suggested that the deeper you go, the more risk and reward. Are people still making games where you can load up on massive loot without really doing anything?