That's fair. I did only discover the possibility of stocking up on hearty meals after playing through the tutorial, and (if I remember correctly) it involved making a priority of researching food at the beginning. That said, I was definitely still a new player when I noticed these things (and probably even now). I don't think I died at any point during the tutorial or my initial run through the main game, or even came particularly close.
I did end up in the situation you describe - away from the base with no suit power - and that's probably the main "You done goofed" moment I experienced in the game. I think I made it back basically by virtue of not having been very far away at the time. Seeing the HUD disappear when unpowered is a really nice touch, and is probably more of a setback than I'd really expect under other circumstances.
Personally, I wouldn't be interested in a difficulty option so much as a few sliders for resource abundance and weather frequency (and creature population, if that's in the works). The default settings could be balanced so as to provide a gentle challenge to a new player, but after that you could set up a game where the main challenge was crafting greenhouses on a relatively barren planet, or a game where you had tons of resources within easy reach but had to contend with frequent lightning and sandstorms, or you could just whack everything on the most generous setting and build up a massive space mansion.