The thing about survival games is that the busy work is the point. Participation in it at first and finding ways to get around it as your base gets more complex is part of the fun. You start from nothing and eventually through effort and planning get powerful. The busywork is the obstacle for the player to overcome.
Without the busy work survival games become some kind of BR. Which has its appeal but scratch fundementally different itches. A pizza and a burger are quite different even though both have bread.
Have you consider Ifone Vuvuzuela 18 octomobilion?
In seriousness though that’s pretty interesting but also a touch misleading as a comparison as standards of living are quite vastly different with the DPRK (as far as I’m aware) still being quite a poor country generally. The US is still first world after all. Is definitely quite impressive on the DPRKs part for doing so much.