I think the key issue here (and by the way I agree with your analysis) is that there isn’t enough supply of resources from the existing playerbase.
I would expect most people who are gathering key resources (gems, orbs, leaves) are using them themselves to craft higher-level items (tools, machines, components) and so given that some of those resources are much in-demand, the prices for them (if they are available to purchase from shops at all) is probably too high to be worthwhile or sustainable.
At the moment, if a player had the desire to farm, let’s say, shimmering orbs - they could probably make some great money for their time. Although, one question is that, other than being able to then buy nice items for quality of life (eg gem tools, food, etc), there isn’t yet perhaps enough to make just gathering an attractive pursuit in itself.
Now, let’s say at launch there are 10x the number of players across 5x the number of worlds, the chance for more players to gather and sell key resources is higher - and doesn’t rely on a few people gathering a lot of those key resources. Thus prices for those resources could come down naturally, and then less time-intensive players have a better chance of being able to make the things they want to based on affordability of key resources.
The issue would remain if everybody who wanted to play also wanted to craft all their own materials, rather than be a part of the economy as a gatherer. But that’s unlikely - just needs to ensure that there is enough variety outside of crafting to make people want to earn the coins to spend on their chosen pursuits.
Hope that makes sense.