oh god, i bought 7d2d like 5 years ago (when was alpha 15 released?) and played the early game already hundrets of times and will hit 1000 hours played soon. It bores me because it is so SLOW gameplay, especially after i did it that often, and with the stone-age-machanic it basically became pure fast-forward grind until i become able to build and quest without it taking ages. I already did it 3 times in A19. I most likely will do it again in A20. I don't want it to be removed, i don't want overal faster progression, i just want to be able to start a playthrough with iron age.
I'd more likely stay 20 days longer in iron age then playing 10 days in stone age AGAIN just to "wait" for iron age. And the age for me also includes some skills. Having an iron pickaxe on day 1 is almost worthless if you run out of stamina after each second swing.
Same like you can start civilization also in middle age instead of stone age, if you got bored by researching pottery for 5 rounds before you can do anything further.
game have 3 phases stone iron steel .... a17-18 just spoiled people by giving them everything in first week .. even Q steel making them bored with no goals after 30 or 50+
now we have roughtly 1 week of stone 1-2 iron then steel
sure its just increasing chance to appear .... but droping iron in week 2 is common .. same as steel in week 3 and later
little broken by few facts
- toilets drop iron tier knife and pistol from day 1
- traders sell Q1-4 .. firearms from day 1 (mostly low tiers like pistol or hunting rifle)
- candy gives +5 gamestage +10%so day 1 level two with candy is enought to have basic chance for iron tier
- it takes 1 point to unlock forge and 1 to unlock iron tools sot here is potential to make Quality 2 iron tools on day 1 if rushed or if you find working forge .... day 2-3 if you dont
is this progressions so slow ?

i mean you cant survive first hour or two using stone tools before you move to full iron self crafted set?
1-2 hour of gameplay to move from early to midgame what you want ? first 30 min stone 60min + steel 2 hours Q6 steel ? nope progression is rather quick .... its not like you play 30 days with crossbow and stone axe
some people will just keep complaining spoiled by a17-18 steel tools from start (my a18save dropped Q3 steel shovel from first looted car before even finding city)
because they feel that someone took advanced stuff from them .. forcing them to play with tools ..
(that are not that much worse actually stone shovel can still 2 hit dirt/graveland .. and iron pickaxe is comparable to steel because you simply cant use its potential early because you cannot sustain that stamina cost even with coffee)
some people are just so spoiled from last two alphas they expect augers from first working stiff tools they loot on day 1 ..and wont accept anything else .. sur ei agree loot need some work ... it feel unrewarding in some areas but progression is rather fine .. especially considering you can craft iron so early effectively skiping primitive tier
and if you loot few toilets you are pretty much guaranteed to have atleast q1 pistol early
what really sucks is just primitive/wood bow