I have.
I've not played in a few months since I've been occupied with other games. My current save I've beaten the first ruin and now I'm trying to save gears for the elk thing before I go off traipsing to my next objective.
I wish I'd known there would be more travelling since I spent a good chunk of time building this house next to the archive only for that area to become basically pointless after. I might use this as my retirement spot after I've finished the whole story, though the first home I made has more to it (farms and windmill etc)

>>715863879
You can make fire clay out of regular clay (common enough) and flint (also common). Finding a deposit of fire clay is certainly nice but not finding one isn't a show stopper.
Also others have already said but although tin IS scarce, copper will serve you well for most tasks and really all you want bronze for is a pickaxe (to dig out iron ore) and an anvil (to beat out the iron blooms).
But in answer to your question: yes. Yes you are. VS has a lot of travel, and if you aren't using the rivers mod (you should) be prepared for multiple day long journeys between the actual story content.