Sorry, I probably could have been more clear that I was referring more to people that play SD for irl years and have crops spread all across their farm. I can definitely sympathize with new players that spread out too much without the experience to know what that entails. Hell, I'm pretty sure did the same my first time playing. It seems petty natural to make that choice.
Fwiw, if you end up trying the game again, I found QOL mods really enhanced my enjoyment of the game, particularly the one that provided the option to change how long days were. Even just a 20% change really helped make the game less stressful for me.
To open the community center (the primary goal for the first year+) specifically takes quite a lot of money actually, and outside of talking with NPC's once a day, money is necessary to get every other advancement I can think of. I agree that many players probably go too hard into trying to min/max things, but the game isn't as loosey-goosey with costs as you suggest.