Being short on supplies made the game much better for me. Different strokes etc...
Agreed.
The scarce supplies in survivor mode was ideal for the post apocalyptic setting in TLOU. It made scrounging for supplies that much more crucial. I clocked in 22 hours on my survivor playthrough (huge chunk of it spent scrounging). It didnt hurt that the world in TLOU was so stunning and begged to be explored.
Limited ammo also intensified the gameplay and really forced you to make your shots count.