@RustyCrab I had a run where I found almost no matches in mystery lake, it was really weird. then I found a ton in other regions
every time you make a fire, get a torch or two out of it. then next time you need to start a fire, light your torch with one match and use the torch instead of matches to start the fire. then if you fail several times you will still only have used one match
even if you have a good torch already, if you don't need the fire anymore and it has time left you can pull torches out of it, harvest them for sticks and put them back in your next fire