Even at a region level, you will have to buy some resources if you want to make the most of your production capacity.
I actually think they did this in a pretty clever way - all regions I've checked are lacking in one, usually two of the resources while they will have an overproduction of the other two.
This leads to more market transactions, which leads to more DEC being burnt, which then helps us all. There's still a chance that this whole thing will go the way of the Dodo, but I feel like we are more and more on track.