I still play with portals on default settings, but if OP wants to check them out, there are several mods that have been out that you can use in case you don't want to wait for the feature to be implemented in the vanilla game. They range from eliminating portal restrictions entirely to some that have you construct special portals or "pay" to transport certain items. There's a lot more portal mods, as well; some that allow you to connect to any portal without having to rename them, so on and so forth. If it's really that big of an issue for you, check out what those mods can do for you. (Or wait, but we have no idea how long the wait will be.)

Originally posted by Flare |UKCS|:

Incoming patch will sort this out for you, a way to tweak your game to how you want.

The idea is to make players use boats and explore, rather than just portal everywhere... makes sense to me, theres a whole world and boats, and players want to live in one place and just take resources back home.

The gameplay aspect of it makes sense. The actual logic of it, as OP indicted, does not.