For last few worlds there were quite a lot of mechanics that limits qualities that various players can achieve from nature (hunting, foraging etc) based on tools, skills and other factors.
While most of the mechanics were added in order to limit speed of development, some of them may not be actual since other mechanics were added, example:
At first, survival hardcap were added to hunting - once you does at least 1 damage to animal, it will be hardcapped by your survival.
But then, another limitation were added, when you butchering the carcass, it is hardcaps all materials by your survival and butchering tool.
This mechanics drastically limits use-cases of player cooperation, when one more developed village could theoretically buy high quality game from other players around. In order for newbie/hermit to trade q300 bones with me, he should buy/grind q300 stone axe and get 300 survival, while average hermit/newbie will drop the game before that, or will less be interested in trade.
In my opinion haven mechanics should respect crowd-sourcing, motivate trade and cooperation between developed and developing players, rather than limiting it and making game effectively single-player.
Since 2015 all we see in mechanics changes is Loftar's brawl with top villages with numbers that top villages can get, literally makes game less playable for everyone else. I'll stress, top players should be taken out of scope for developers, as this competition only made game worse, while top players/villages always remains better since they put more efforts and knowledge to their gains.