The point of Survivalism is to make it easier to obtain base game items without going as far as mining or building. Who wants this? Someone like me, who has the attention span of a very mentally defficient field mouse. You can get straight wheat from grass (though its rarer than seeds), or make charcoal by crafting two sticks, some flint, and wood together, rather than having to build an entire furnace for it. You can also get charcoal by burning wood in a campfire, because... yeah? Honestly that one should be a vanilla feature. If you're low on string, you can get 3 from one wool block.
Also, you can get the four clay balls out of a clay block by crafting it. Before you'd have to place and break it. I'm not sure this will help many people, but who knows? It just... fit.