The thing is, like so many other things, there simply is no middle ground. Things just don't work that way.
But I wonder what you would think a "middle ground" is? You either keep track of resources or you hand wave it all away. What is the middle?
The players ship has 12 days of air left, the closest place with air is 15 days travel: they have to use crazy resource management, macguyverisums, tricks, clever ideas and desperate actions to make that trip...often at a high cost.
So what is the middle here? What is less then "Keeping track of air is badwrongfun and too hard, so your ship can just go anywhere in the universe and never ever worry about air"? Is the "answer" going to be DM might sometimes randomly on a whim say a place is "too far" and say something like "oh you just need to buy some air for 50 gold, then you can go anywhere"? That is nowhere near any middle, that is right next to "go anywhere don't worry about air".
What is the middle?