Agree with this, its sitghly the same issue with many games that have a pressing/time sensitive(or at least give that impresion) main quest, yet allow you to do free travel/exploration and side activities for like forever. it should be better worded in my opinion, explaining that returning to the base and restocking for the long and hard travel ahead is a must and advised.
Agree, there should be some basic melle atack.
Agree too, but it needs to be carefully balanced if said thing is introduced.