Minerals, Ores, Farming, crafting, being self sufficient was all available in other versions of fallout online. 
Kevlar needs to be bought and cannot be craft from minerals/ores/metal parts/etc?
What's the point of crafting or having a crafter of your own? 
I'm all for a money sink and I'm all for getting players to travel away from the starting location. 
But there should be some way to become self sufficient as a crafter I think. 
Den has things that are bought there, Modoc has gecko pelts, you could even make the minerals or something required for kevlar up north or in a zone like Modoc but make crafting self sufficient.