I do actually see your point. I'm not a fan of spending real life hours sailing around and not finding what I'm looking for, especially when looking for the trader or looking for an accessible swamp that has crypts. I pretty much always use the map website to look it up. For the portals, I've been modding those for awhile.

I'm currently attempting a no map and no portal run just because I've done a lot of other things and am trying it out, but I'm not sure how far I will stick with it. I'm proud of myself for figuring out how to use a build piece as a compass and successfully finding the Elder, though I got lucky and it is on the starting island. Maps seems to be about 50/50 on that one. I think my chances of finding the trader are slim and none.

I realize that I most likely do not have the patience to play this game purely vanilla.

Probably your best option currently would be to look up one of those threads with suggested seeds where everything is positioned better. Make sure it's post-mistlands when you do.