Resources, metal and minerals no problem at all. Collect everything that isn't nailed on the wall. Scrap weapons. Search on wiki where the shipment traders are located. Collect weapons and armor and sell it to buy stocks of shipments. Of course I had problems with wood and oil, but I build mine few settlements piece for piece. Strong back perk help carry alot of stuffs.
Btw, Bethesda do fix exploits even there are bugs/unwanted glitches that should be taken care of. Exploits do not destroy the game and if players find it usefull, go ahead, it's your game, but Bethesda politics in mine eyes, NO exploits. They are going to be fixed. Earlier TES game also had exploits. Been fixed as well. I use game commands to re gather lost named traders and use on robots so they don't create havoc where I'm placing them. There are mods yes, but no mods on this machine before the official game editor is available.
Only exploit I used, scrap things to increase the settlement building area. These are as default too small. I don't have super green stuff of machine, but after I have increased few settlements area, no problem at all. Bugs/glitches are issues I need to deal with and these nothing to do with the settlement size.
Cheers,
-Klevs