The thing is that everything you are complaining about is part of the progression system. Food upgrades and armor upgrades are absolutely needed if you want to explore the next biome in relative safety,

It isn't some pointless grind that you see in a lot of games where you grind for hours for tiny rewards to finally unlock something "better" but it is just another piece of garbage.

In this game I feel rewarded for the work I do.
If there wasn't some form of progression system you could just run through the bosses in a few hours.