Thing is, Survival mode isn't just "hard" difficulty, it's basically a different gametype. It turns NMS into a roguelike. Some may like that intense challenge, and some may not. It sounds to me that you should just try Normal mode.
Yeah, life support drains mercilessly, resources are cut in half, storms will destroy you in seconds, pirates are relentless - and if you ever find a decent planet then sentinels will be all over you if you so much as look at a rock.
I mean if cowering in a cave for minutes at a time while a radioactive storm rages outside, or skulking around planets waiting for a pirate scan to pass sounds tedious, then yes, it's tedious. You can spend a lot of time just waiting for danger to pass.
With all that said, after a couple of jumps and some upgrades it gets markedly easier - if you've got off the planet then you may as well continue. You can always play a Normal game in parallel - they are different save files.