The problems I can see with this are:
Resources though they may seem plentiful they really aren't.
1. 2-5 people in a matter of days could deforest and pick the ground clean in a gigantic area around there totem.
2. Tree's grow back but not fast enough with enough resources to matter.
3. Grass / brush / branches , Grass at this point doesnt come back, brush / branches do not either if theres not a mature canopy of trees above the ground.
4. Logs and rocks are to heavy to carry over a long distances.
5. And this is my biggest one, Theres already insane amounts of clicking to do just for everyday tasks, Lets not add 1000's a clicks for things WE HAVE TO DO...
I agree there should be some maintenance fee, ANYONE recall the MMO Shadowbane it had a lot of the same stuff when it came to player built cities..
What this game really needs is a Trade system and a currency
http://www.xsyon.com/forum/project.php?issueid=1583
And a way to pay for maintenance that wasnt destroying the landscape, it doesnt recover fast enough.
a. NPC merchants I can sell the 1000's of things I make to level a skill.
b. An auction house
c. Get horses and wagons, set up trade routes between towns. ( this would require a new searchable mapping system, so you could locate tribes aligned the same as you ) and / or if you have found them yourself they are located on your map regardless of alignment.
If your going to have hire-able NPC's to resource gather, then there should be NPC's for a economy... Hire merchants to sell your stuff. I cant think of the game off the top of my head but I remember an MMO that had an Auction house, but you couldn't buy off it, it gave you the location and price of the item being sold and you had to go get it..
I would say if it has to be material cost maintenance then let it be anything player made or harvested. Alot of people make tons and tons of crap trying to level skills, let those items be sacrificed.
You could also have a 60 day period where if noone from said tribe logs in start the removal count down, and have this time visible on the tribe totem...
I know im long winded, but I have been playing a couple weeks now, and can tell you there a steep learning curve because of vast amount of things to do, I wouldnt want to see anything more to make it more laborious to play the game...