So apparently I'm one of those who suck at survival too. I guess you can consider this the ramblings of a player who doesn't normally care much for hardcore, mob-fighty maps.
It's been about four Minecraft days and I've died ... four times? Plus rage-quit and shame-restarted twice. A tainted world is WAY, WAY out of my comfort zone. I really hate it. I think I'm playing right now just to prove something to myself.
I know the point is supposed to be exploration, but for me exploration is out of the question. I can't go 50 blocks without losing half my health to taint poisoning. Ores being harder to get just feels to me like "I guess I need to mine more." I know you nerfed taint spread but to me it feels super fast. Most everything is covered in fibrous taint now. There's not much left in the way of grass or trees to punch.
There may be something in the quest book that helps me through this part, but I wouldn't know - it's in a gravestone over in the village, where a stupid tainted villager killed me. He's also got my bucket, coal and iron pick. I'm not going back there for a while.
I did find pure node and dug a hole. I'll dig around here for a while I try to replace the stuff I lost in the village.
Sorry for the moaning and groaning. You deserve it for putting me through this torture though.