Well, from the developers: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/why-valheim-wants-to-stop-you-using-portals

For me, part of the game is optimizing under the given constraints. Portals with no constraints would be stupid simple and one step away from "free build cost" ("creative mode"). At the other end, playing without portals really makes you change some strategies and *prepare* well, rather than prep just being "have a portal ready... oops, died... just pop back through".

Everything "grind" in this game is really just setting the stage for an epic avalanche of adventure. If you make no mistakes, usually you can keep things under control and even boring. A slip up, or moment of misfortune during "the grind" and you might have a chapter to add to your Viking Saga.

If the portals were unrestricted, the game becomes *about* portals. Everything would be about setting down a portal next to whatever you're doing and sucking resources dry straight into wherever you need them.

To be fair, I'm sure some people would much prefer to play like this. Some people would like to focus on combat, some building, some exploring or sailing... and some like the whole blend this rather well-liked game offers! Anyway, to make it more appealing to a range of folks who don't have a group of diverse players to take up tasks, it would make sense for the game to eventually have some tunable world-settings. To bias things toward more or less combat, more or less "grind"... exploration, ease of travel, or ease of building. During development, it makes most sense to focus on a core intended experience -- the baseline.