By adding more micromanagement and treadmill activities, you increase the effort necessary, but do you also increase the challenge? Tying the player to the base to return more frequently reduces their radius of exploration. It is commonly designed in a way, that for the late-game you find solutions that grant you more freedom of movement - at a cost!
Let me explain my point in an example you mentioned yourself: generators. You can build the rather cheap generator bank from the start. You get a better generator with more fuel capacity and that can be wrenched and reused already, if you invest a rare resource, a gauge. If you go through the hassle of setting up survivors, train them up and invest a LOT of time (pay for samples, get plastics, electronic components, wait for the quality to get better) you can have solar banks. If you invest time, resources, fight harder mobs and go through the hassle of moving your base, you can find and use a nuclear power plant. You don't have to refuel your generator now. You invested work and earned it.
Looking at the farmgirl, you need to look at the alternatives as well: Self-farming requires a lot less micromanagement right now, also less fuel and is still more predictable and therefore gives you a better freedom than the farmgirl right now. You will need rodent and fly repellers, but using a dedicated generator will power them for a long time, predictable. There are resources to increase food, hydration, wellness that give you nearly unlimited circle of movement, preserved food like canned food and beef jerky. Water doesn't spoil (makes sense), but also goldenrod and chrysanthemum don't spoil, just brew the tea on demand. Wheat, sunflower seeds, they don't spoil. Sugarcane doesn't. Fruits don't spoil if left on the trees. Animals don't spoil and you can stuff a ton of water buckets and food into their troughs. Animal fat doesn't spoil. So in sum you get all the ingredients for cakes (one of the best foods in game) without spoilage, except for eggs, but if you leave chicken coops with a lot of water and chicken feed, you will reliably be able to harvest some fresh eggs whenever you arrive.
On top of it all there are still spoilage free containers in game, but I won't go into details here, because I have the feeling it's unwanted to use this method.
Plus, the main reason, as I understood it, was to prevent the player from using farm storages as the staple cheap food storage for themselves in their base and their looting outposts. Making the melt time more predictable would also make them useable as this again.
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Can't even get to the game menu