Originally posted by Gunther Ultrabolt Novacrunch:

If you have the time, I encourage a play through sans portals.

This is how the game was meant to be played.

In my opinion, dropping a portal in the middle of a dense forest, filling up a few wood chests with wood and stone, then portal'ing home encumbered with 3000 pounds of materials cheapens the experience.

Playing without portals makes boats and carts more relevant. Your decision to gather wood or stone now carries the same considerations as Ore.

I've probably logged 200 hours or so playing this way and I absolutely love it.

I wish (and I hope) there will be options someday to create seeds with limitations on such things as portals and world hopping.

Interesting article on the subject:

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/why-valheim-wants-to-stop-you-using-portals

Actually the year old article shows how the lead devs are split on use of portals. Henrik is all for portals and even allowing them to transport everything(at the time of that article) while Richard was in opposition with the compromise being what we have now.

----(Henrik) Törnqvist, however, isn’t behind the ores ’n’ metals solution at all. “I personally love the portals!” he tells me. “I think they would probably be better if we let players transport everything through them.”----

Thus your premise that no portals is "how the game was meant to be played" is a bit inaccurate if not misleading due to your no portal play encouragement perhaps.