Generally, no. It goes without saying that if you're still in the early game, then farming the savannah or the midnight grove for hides can be a serious challenge, so it might not always be possible, but you also won't need as much tar compared to someone building a fortified base in the end game. Obviously, farm what you can safely farm, there's no shame in farming crocodiles on the noob river if that's what you can handle, but if you're at a point where you can handle better sources of hides, you'll find your tar per hour will increase exponentially. When you need thousands and thousands of tar, you'll value every second you save, and squeezing mountains of coal into individual units of tar will start to feel pretty silly.