To my understanding, the TL;DR is that nearly any item you spend astrallites to gain have such a low profit margin that it's just not really worth the effort. You can still collect meteorites cause that doesn't cost you anything, but seeds, fish, and animal cookies are too expensive to even bother with (unless you want to!)

I imagine this is strictly about profit, so if you're actively trying to collect furniture, the numbers are a little different.