You are mostly correct. My kids and I played Minecraft 1.18 survival even in beta. The new ore distribution rules, especially for iron, greatly increase the gri

You are mostly correct. My kids and I played Minecraft 1.18 survival even in beta. The new ore distribution rules, especially for iron, greatly increase the grindiness of the beginning of the game. We were compelled to immediately dig down to Y=16, where iron is most common (except for extremely tall mountains that are rare biomes). https://minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Ore?file=1-18-ore-distribution.jpg https://minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Ore?file=1-18-ore-distribu... We did not find the world "riddled with holes," though, and gaps in Minecraft have always been easy to traverse by simply placing blocks. 1.18 ore distribution sucks. Going caving virtually requires full armor due to mobs, but now to get full armor you need to go caving (or get extremely lucky).