The resource regen is a pain but it was brought to light recently that the surface resources being taken wont start world regeneration, there has to be block changes in the chunk they were located in, so when collecting resources in your favourite areas if you break the block below the resource its more likely to regen later. Not ideal but iv found its been helping .
I was in the same situation as you recently with the levels and was honestly on the verge of leaving the game because of it, but I decided Id at least give a go at alt characters (particularly hated the thought of doing this) before I go, So I made an alt for just crafting and spec’d my main to be a hunter/miner and have to say it worked out soo well, my hunter/miner is lvl 34 and I have to say he’s hard as nails, I use him on the tier 6 planets for mining and killing (except meteors) and its very manageable and fun, and the alt quickly level’d up to 19 by ust crafting what I needed and can now make almost everything. Its worth trying out alts and making specific builds instead of a all round character.