Originally posted by Solarus:

This conversation brings an issue to light. Once you make something you never need to worry about having supplies to repair it. There is no incentive to keep going out and mine the things you needed to make the initial equipment. The only thing I have found that shows a need to keep harvesting supplies is the pointed stakes. The supplies needed to create the pointy little defense items disappear if the item is destroyed. That needs to happen more in the game. Otherwise there is no need to continue to harvest supplies

While you may have a point for how things currently are, you have to realise that the game still is in early access. There are biomes and bosses missing and the economy might/likely will be balanced further. New things will be available to buy and produce.

Up until the endgame and killing the fifth boss, sure, there were things that were stockpiled in large quantities, but I think the work, the grind - the economy and overall game experience were pretty well balanced. There were things you ran out of while you explored, built, farmed or fought enemies.

When all is done - sure, the economy will appear broken because there's nothing left to strive for. No direct incentive from the game to build or explore. If you keep playing, you will be able to build up too much supplies, unless you're into building new bases.

As for your suggestion that things should be able to be broken and unretrievable, as for the wooden stakes (I'm not sure if this is true), you may have a point. The discussion probably deserves and separate thread.
Overall, I like the current, very forgiving system. One example is in early-mid game when your Karve is getting wrecked and you can head for the nearest land in an attempt to either save the ship or at least retrieve the pieces. If you die and your ship is destroyed across an ocean, it might still be a hassle to retrieve the items and cargo, in particular within a certain time limit, before the despawn.
For this example, I believe the current system is very good and balanced. It's penalising enough as it is. Although, the current mechanic of being able to destroy your own ship for safe and easy storage seems a bit cheap and exploitative. I wouldn't mind tweaks here and there.