So I went to start a game with non-standard resource settings for the first time, only to discover that my desired resource setting doesn't exist.
A smaller amount of resources (fewer veins, lower extraction rates for crude, etc.), but without depletion. Choking the effective rate of extraction (not total volume) would be sufficient to force expansion, which is the reason usually given for depleting resources.
Depleting resources suck, because maintenance chores in factory games suck. Ain't nobody got time for repeatedly pulling stakes on their mining operations. If I build it, it should stay built and working the way it started out working, unless and until I come back to change it. Depleting resources don't add "challenge." They add tedium.
Moving targets in factory games also suck. The depleting resources are probably the biggest reason so many of us throw up our hands and just use black boxes. Whereas with non-depleting resources, but in smaller deposits, there would be a whole world of extra logistics opportunities.
Like ... this planet has loads of X and Y. I need a lot of X and a little of Y to build Z, so I will build as much Z as possible here to use up the X, then ship the extra Y for use somewhere else. But when doing that is not sustainable, we just throw up our hands and say "Screw it, I'm just shipping both X and Y to a black box."
OK, I'm done. You may commence firing.