Thu May 09, 2019 1:39 pm by Zydana
Mostly you understand correctly.
Perhaps what you don't know is that by way of loot, you'll receive things like Rags, Animal Bones, Scrap Metal, etc. Those tags are not usable to create anything in-game. You'll need to convert them to resources (Cloth, Supplies, Steel), if you want to craft anything. Resources, in turn, can be used to create commodities.. which are needed for highest tier crafting. Most NPCs won't take the lesser items for barter either since they are fairly useless. You'll need to make these "useless" tags useful. One way to do that is to convert them with a building on land.
You do need a skill to have a holding, but you don't need any skills to have an estate... so there's a bit of a trade off. Also keep in mind that this portion of the game doesn't appeal to everyone... and for some it's been their favorite.
The economy system has gone through many revisions over the years - this version is a very simplified version and available to everyone. This version also has limitless property available too (previous versions there was a set amount of property and quickly you'd have to try to steal the land from other players).
We are very open to listening to new ideas on how the economic system in the game can get better. We know this isn't perfect.
I hope this in some way helps.