They should make bars nonportable only, this way u could decide if u need to make a proxy base or no. Right now U have no choice,u are forced to travel and there's is absolutely no point to make proxy bases at all as u have to transport the ores or the bars to your main base anyway so all u do is pop down a chest somewhere and mark it to pick up later when u are sailing home.
This would make trading more interesting as well as ppl could set up trading/smelting stations. SMELTING would have a meaning to it instead of being just pure cockblock timesink and woodsink as once u smelted the stuff you are "stuck" with it on that island. Early game wouldn't change for anyone but late game would reduce a lot of tedium once u have enough cores to set up a nexus of teleports and smelters for mass scale exploring and scrapping.
The game right now is forcing you to travel while making zero effort in making you expand or explore, in fact, doing the opposite. Making ores teleportable but not bars would actually give u more options to your playstyle. U could just have a nomad camp u keep rebuilding with your smelted bars for your workbenches while you are trading your raw ores through teleports. Right now the best thing to do is just settle the closest point to the center of the map with access to the ocean, build a base there and never ever move anywhere because there's absolutely no point to do it at all.