Back to give another go after a year - couple questions

So I played Ark religiously (PvE) for about 6 months when it first came out. Reached my "endgame" when I had max level, perfect tamed argy, quetzel, Rex, spoons, etc. There just wasn't much left to keep my interest when I could take anything out in a few hits with zero effort.I came back for a few solid months after the Center map dropped and the game was fresh with new games on a new map. Had a lot of fun.Just started playing again a few weeks back and have another 100 hours in the game and I feel like I'm fast approaching another dead end with maxed out Dino horde and huge base. This time around I figured I would push further and focus a lot of energy into getting to Tek tier and work all the caves. I've never done either of these before and so it's something new.Thanks for sticking with me this far and here's my questions:1) Are caves a huge waste of time? Or am I missing something? Is this by design? I've spent hours clearing east volcano only to ever find one drop - red drop near the artifact. And this drop isn't there every time. All my effort here for an ascendant gallimimus saddle and a couple ascendant cloth recipes?! My experience in other caves is very similar. An hour at least for a couple recipes I'll never use.2) What the literal fuck is the point of grinding all the artifacts/ elite Dino drops to do the boss fights for a fucking trophy and maybe 12 element? For Gods sake you'd have to do this 50 times to make a couple tek pieces.3) What is the point of Tek generator- which you need for any of the Tek equipment? 2-3 boss fights to build one then a boss fight every day just to power it?!4) Tek armor? Seriously? I have leather with better armor. The jet pack is cool but again, you'd need to do another 2 boss fights each day to power the damned thing as it'll burn through 1 element in 60 seconds of flight.5) Can we get a fucking beacon for the underwater drops already? My God there's what? 2 on the map at a time and they can be in any of 20 spots? Which would take over an hour to check the possible spots? And you can't see the damned things unless you're 2 foundations away?Anyway, sorry for the half rant but I love the "idea" of this game and I'm curious if there is any chance these obstacles are being worked on, as intended, or "try again in 2 years". via /r/playark http://ift.tt/2EOpUUI