There is a good reason of why they do this. Game progression

The lore in the game is that you have forgot how to make things, such as tools. So the progression is to learn. And you learn as you pick up materials.

This is why boss 1 is nothing but a tutorial boss (and super easy to kill). Reason of why they also give you the pickaxe then, so you have it when you really need to go into Black Forest for Copper and Tin. "Two birds with one stone" (pun intended)

And stone really isn't needed until you hit iron age (Swamps) and you get the stone crafting table. Sure, campfires, but can easily be done by picking up stone from the ground. And there are spots in Meadows that provide a good amount of them.

In the end, just kill boss 1 and get the antler pickaxe.