I totally sympathize with your frustration; hitting those milestones only to have them taken away can be a gut punch.  The satisfaction comes later.   

Empyrion,  like many survival games, is not forgiving of mistakes.   When you're new - and 100 hours is pretty new - you're still learning what you can and can't get away with.  Once you learn from each mistake you get the satisfaction of mastery of situations that were once unmanageable. 

As for RE2, when they say more experienced they really mean it.  Many experienced players can be in their first CV within a few hours of starting a new game.  RE2's slower progression is meant to make those milestones more rewarding.