Basic materials are too rare.

I played Minecraft a lot while it was owned by Mojang.  It was a wonderfully balanced game.  
Coal was relatively plentiful, and iron wasn't hard to come by once you got deep enough.  Seeds could be found by breaking grass quickly enough to farm wheat.

Now all of these are much harder to find, and getting started requires far more grinding than it used to.

I'd like to be exploring the world, but getting the resources to make that happen takes far too long.  
At least provide the option to switch back to the previous level of resource availability.