Hey there, I'm not a dev here, but it's still great to see others enjoy the game. It's simple right now, but has so much potential. And the dev actually interacts with the players.
Anyway, I've read your post and below are a few hints. Not sure what version you played previously, but hopefully you'll find something useful here.
Rock crabs - finally we're not alone. If you like the crabs, but don’t like to be attacked, you might try the "hostile creatures" checkbox in the world settings. They will still spawn, but won't attack you. At most they will just wander around and get stuck on rocks. They are a bit dumb like that..
Power pack - it's useful for vehicles, as a backup on longer trips, especially the slower dozer. Keep in mind, it will recharge even at 99% and it's a single use item. It's also a good idea to keep one in a "only night" scenario, as it will fully recharge the suit too.
If you find yourself dying from the lack of air, you can craft an "oxygen tank" in a chemistry lab. It holds 200 units of air, but is consumed on use, so keep that in mind. They don't stack, but are cheap and can surely save your life.
Another item you might want to try is the "vehicle repair kit" from the workbench. It fixes 50% of the damage. Yes, that includes wheels.
I'm also curious about the autocrafter issue you mentioned. It's a bit buggy, yes, but it is getting better for sure. All you need are materials in a connected storage module and power. It needs a few seconds to "think" before starting a job, but should work fine.
Can you recreate the situation you encountered? Maybe it will be possible to solve it with more details about what happened.