But at the end of the day, you're not restoring anything if you're dead due to lack of food, water, or shelter, or violent action by someone else. That's what's confusing me about your view, here.
There's a reason these basics are at the very base of Maslow's hierarchy[1], and that's because without them, such niceties as polite society aren't possible. It would be foolish to not concentrate on having the basics available.
Your post presumes conflict with all the other survivors, which says a lot more about you than it does about them. In reality, people tend to help each other out in the wake of disasters, rather than engaging in a zero-sum struggle for exclusive control of resources.
And you presume that you know the friendliness status of every other survivor. Such assumptions only hold within your limited circle of acquaintances. What happens when you encounter someone who you and your circle of friends and neighbors don't know? The social order is gone.
There's a "disaster", and then there's the total collapse of society.
There's a reason these basics are at the very base of Maslow's hierarchy[1], and that's because without them, such niceties as polite society aren't possible. It would be foolish to not concentrate on having the basics available.
1: http://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow-pyramid.jpg