You have a really valid point about charcoal. Your first night should be spent in sheer terror if you fail to find any coal and thus get any torches. The good thing about beds is moving your spawn point, especially if you wind up in a desert or something, but skipping to day does make the monsters-come-out-at-night incredibly trivial. I've always appreciated torches, which is why I always have a stack of them somewhere.
I suppose the lack of mystery really doesn't help. Of course we're going to learn a lot of the tricks of the game, but there has been a LOT of stuff that has made the game easier. Stacking food makes things so simple. Then again, I've been playing since the end of Alpha, so maybe it is just nostalgia.