You can just turn biters off or put them on peaceful mode. Then do what you want. Also, I'd advise you ignore the popup if it bothers you. It comes up only once per game.
Everything in that game can be automated to minimize hustle, if you'd like it to be. Something I found fun was learing to figure out how to automate everything. For example, a drill outputs coal in a direction. The coal can go directly onto a belt, into a chest, into a smelter, or into another machine. Knowing that, you can figure out how to keep the coal drills operating continuously, without using inserters.
BTW, coal inserters will feed themselves coal if they are pulling coal off of a coal belt. So it's useful for feeding coal into your boilers for generating electricity, but not much else.
Finally, do you have evidence the game devs want you to feel bad? I think they want to produce something that challenges their users who enjoy challenges. You are free to respond to a challenge with frustration. But casting blame on the devs for your negative emotional response to their creation is unfounded.
Everything in that game can be automated to minimize hustle, if you'd like it to be. Something I found fun was learing to figure out how to automate everything. For example, a drill outputs coal in a direction. The coal can go directly onto a belt, into a chest, into a smelter, or into another machine. Knowing that, you can figure out how to keep the coal drills operating continuously, without using inserters.
BTW, coal inserters will feed themselves coal if they are pulling coal off of a coal belt. So it's useful for feeding coal into your boilers for generating electricity, but not much else.
Finally, do you have evidence the game devs want you to feel bad? I think they want to produce something that challenges their users who enjoy challenges. You are free to respond to a challenge with frustration. But casting blame on the devs for your negative emotional response to their creation is unfounded.