For example, my launch thrusters completely drain when I take off, which makes it rather hard to explore a planet when your fuel is miles apart. Any one find tech that improves that?

No, and it's an intentional decision for survival mode, making it so much more unattractive to use the ship for short hops. No way around it.

The general consus seems to be that the game actively tries to kill you on Survival difficulty. It's really an acquired taste at this point.

Well poop. Oh well guess I'll stock up on fuel XD