personally, i like the feature of portal restrictions especially considering long term pvp play.

but if you really want to get around it, world hopping exists and is in the game for a reason.

those using mods to remove the restrictions aren't cheating either.

honestly i think there should be world settings for these people, things like the ability to turn off base raids and portal restrictions would honestly make a lot of people happy, and in the end would be a server side thing and wouldn't exactly be considered "cheating"

just playing on a lower difficulty.

i mean if you don't have pvp on your server there is honestly no need for portal restrictions, the entire point of the restriction is to limit the ability of the players to grind materials for weapons in a short amount of time.

risk vs reward.

having to transport metals is an infrastructure type of play, and people attack infrastructure to retrieve supplies.

so again, the only reason for the restriction is pvp, other than that i see no reason why a solo player can't just turn off the restrictions and save themselves time.

i mean if the worry is that they can make a lot of iron really fast, again i will mention that world hopping exists so as much as that can be an issue for pvp, it's really not THAT big of an issue and balance can still be maintained.