There are mods that make the game much harder, including by cutting your inventory and limits on weight, but in my experience people are drawn to increasing the horizon rather than restricting how far you can reach.

So e.g. rather than forcing you to move more slowly (e.g. realistic walking pace, limited sprint, burden by weight) let's add moon rockets so you can go further. In fact, why stop at the moon (albeit that is where the Rats went because it's made of cheese -- in some continuities, I should really go beat that part of the pack one day)? Add space stations, ferry rockets, and eventually an interstellar drive so you can visit other solar systems.

If I put an aerial with unlimited range upgrade on the outside of a Compact Machine on the moon, and then I run the network inside that Compact Machine over a wireless link to another Compact Machine on Mars, then I can use machines on the surface of Mars, wirelessly, while stood on the (notional) far side of the Moon. Unlike the real world, Minecraft doesn't know that the latency ought to be incredibly annoying when I do that :D

"There's no wrong way to enjoy yourself". But on the whole the instinct to make it harder hasn't been as popular.