It's been a while since I played MH4U, so I don't remember exactly what you are talking about. And i never played MH Online so no idea neither. Though the 3U had it's own map where you can spend infinite time in it gathering, hunting, cooking, etc. Which I really liked and it compensate for the lack of farm.

I do remember getting really frustrated at some point on 3U and 4U (specially 4U), where I had to go and gather some bugs and minerals, worse part is that the places that spawn those things are random, there is no specific place where you know it will always be there. It was annoying and frustrating.

I hope they fixed this issue here, but until I can confirm it's gone I won't buy it.