For me it depends on whether or not the activity is getting in the way of what I would rather be doing at that time. So yes, for me the same activity can be grindy or relaxing.

In a survival game, even in a pretty forgiving one like Valheim, there's a core loop of activities that you have to do before you are allowed to spend the "free time" you earned with that loop. Console commands aside, raids or your empty food locker don't care if you'd rather be building. If you want to frolick in the pretty plains, you have to devote time to either mastering combat or upgrading your armor. If you don't want to do that, tough luck.

Just from my personal stash of anecdotes: I'm just playing Spiritfarer, and while it's a vastly different game, it also has exploring / gathering / upgrading / crafting and a gated biome progression. But the game gives you almost total freedom to do what you want at any time you want to do it. And there are several ways to acquire the same resource, in case one of them doesn't suit you. As soon as something starts to feel grindy, I'll just switch to another task.