Did you click on the link in the OP? You're missing the entire point. The point is to make resource collection fun as a central part of the game.

When the OP includes "Hiring others to do it all" for apparently the "central part of the game" then I'm more inclined to think towards making resource collection entertaining in general, rather than resource collection for one specific game type/style. Even if not, I stand by my previous post.

If you need to resource collect constantly then I don't think making the collection into a series of minigames is a good idea. As a player if I wanted to play a load of minigames I would go and find some rather than playing an RPG.

If it's only something done intermittently then having a "Chop down the tree" minigame could be a nice distraction from everything else.

If you play a game like Harvest Moon the main premise is "Grow Crops" there are other things you can do to take a break from Growing Crops (Go mining, fish, etc). The reward from growing your crops is seeing the overall progression of your character, and making money. The activities of hoeing and planting don't pop into mini-games to try and make them more entertaining.

Resource collection should be entertaining as an aside to a game. If the entire game is about resource collection, then it's the game that needs to be interesting, not the act of resource collecting as a standalone.