I prefer solo since when I play with friends I have to watch out for their safety and when they get creative and start breaking up the base to rebuild and add stuff it can get chaotic..
You can always just log out of your Solo SP and start your server find strangers if you trust them and invite them in.
Or join a group looking for players there is this Looking for Groups discussion hub,
https://steamcommunity.com/app/892970/discussions/3/

It has advantages for sailing and exploring but hey I have pet boars who love me :)
If I get stuck somewhere I use dev commands cmd consol to solve it.