The game is enough of an open world sandbox that it will happily let you shoot yourself in the foot repeatedly. Grind is in the mind, it is a choice you make, there is no time pressure in this game.

You may look upon a copper mine as a grinding chore - or a lure for greydwarves and trolls, a combat arena. You can exhaust yourself trying to make everything, or you can choose to make only a few things that you believe are critical to the path you have chosen. There are very very few things at each level that are actually required for progression. Most will be tossed aside as junk before long.

There are as many ways to play this game as there are players, whether or not playing is 'grindy' depends upon your viewpoint and your choices.

It is a game, have fun. There is no spoon.