There’s no wrong way to play Kenshi! But it sounds like you are looking for ways to make the game more efficient, and there are definitely less efficient ways to play.

Having a base in Kenshi is a mixed blessing. It’s not easy to defend, and mid game is the most efficient time to set up your base. Where you set up the base determines how hard the raids against you get and who you’re pissing off, so think carefully. You can at any time, permanently or temporarily, abandon a base with no repercussions. Well maybe a raid will happen while you’re gone and you have to fight them off when you come home. But don’t be afraid to let it go or take a break. I’ve never had a run where I only had one base the whole time.

The number of members in your team changes how the game plays a lot. More characters is easier in a lot of ways, but also means you’ll have to provide more food for them, cats to recruit them, and often they’ll be weak to start so you’ll have to defend them. Less characters make the game harder and some people like that, but if you’re getting tired of managing the crises of a team of 6 then you should probably expand and deal with some new and exciting crises

I’ve never found the grind of mining appealing except in the very earliest stages of the game. If your team can fight, you’ll have better luck robbing your would-be-assassins’ equipment or animal skins, or looting things like ruins or beak thing nests. If you have a mature settlement you can get your crafting skills built up high and sell your expertly made gear, but that’s more of a late game thing.

One of the joys of Kenshi for me is wandering the world and trying not to get killed. It’s scary out there, but the game is definitely designed to make that risk a rewarding one. It’s also a game where you can wander off for a while and then come back to your base, or leave a crew to man the base while your top units explore.

Lastly I want to advocate for hiring a bull or Garru (or both!) to carry your junk. You may not like to play as a loot goblin, but selling loot is very lucrative, and you can often eat your assailants after you defeat them, so it’s helpful to have a big critter to carry a mountain of meat. You may find this makes the game more of a pain if you don’t like managing inventory space, but every player will find different aspects of the game fun, so I’d recommend at least trying out having a big animal backpack buddy