Originally posted by Moist Butt:

I mean building a outpost takes time and crafting station level is a thing. If you make a bunch of outpost you are wasting time and resources. If you are doing no portal run then it make sense to have good outpost through the map otherwise one strong base just seems more efficient

A properly designed outpost does not need raid defenses, only defenses against locals. This makes it much easier and faster to build.

Yes crafting station level is a thing, so is repair station level - every item that is manufactured has two levels, not necessarily the same - the repair station level required and the manufacturing station level required. The repair station level requirement is always equal to or mostly significantly less than the manufacturing station level. An common example is troll armor, needs level 2 workbench to repair but needs level 5 workbench for manufacturing at the max level.