Even with the world settings jacked all the way up it takes a stupid long time to mine just about anything other than stone or dirt, even with a top tier pickaxe and the requisite perks. And I will say exploration is a little iffy too, especially in the desert with all the verticality.

I broke down and started visiting a multiplayer server where it’s basically just a big store full of everything currently in the game so I could just take what I needed/wanted.