I don't play with traders either (usually play perma death, no traders, no loot respawn, no supply drops).
You can drink directly from bodies of water and takes the risks involved with that, but at least you won't die of thirst. You can also still find bottles of dirty water and either drink them (again, risks) or boil the water in a pot on a fire to make it safe to drink. Water is still available, it is just not so easily available now.
Personally, I've known for many alphas that the devs' direction for the game is not what I would like overall. I will wait until release and then mod the game into what I want to play and once polished I will finally release that mod to the public in case other people want to play the game the same way. In the meantime I will continue to pop in from time to time and play each alpha just to get a feel for how things are progressing. Admittedly, my play time has been getting shorter and shorter with each new alpha.