Oh yes, cheating and modding is very much intended. In fact, at this stage, even if I tried to lock it down, there would be no fool-proof method to stop people from tinkering, so I haven’t even tried. I know the people that want to cheat is a very low percentage, and there’s an even lower percentage of people that KNOW how to cheat.
It doesn’t bother me all that much since that’s just how the player wants to experience Wayward? If they have a different idea what fun is, I shouldn’t force them into my idea of fun.
There’s going to be many changes with thirst coming up (including what you mentioned). I recently just revealed some stuff here:
http://www.reddit.com/r/Wayward/comments/1j3r2h/a_short_suggestion/