They should bring back making ethanol from corn. As it is, I have had no reason to grow corn since it is so plentiful and so either potato/mushroom/fat/meat or more likely water are my limiting factors, but I am not having trouble staying fed.
There is plenty of shale to be found though, and I don't really remember ever mining it before A21 but I sure do now. Still, I've made 1 trip per game so far. Now lead otoh, I mine lead like one day a week the junk turrets chew through so much ammo.
So fuel is a big issue before you can make your own, I pretty much stick to the minibike and don't go crazy with powered devices in my base before then. The fuel saver mods are also a big help.
Really don't use antibiotics or even make them. Honey early, honey often. They probably need to do some re-balancing there. Maybe make the late game radiated zombies give a stronger initial infection so that you need to use antibiotics at the later game stages? Otherwise it would just be too punishing for people starting out.