I believe the truth is a bit different. Resources are irrelevant. What's relevant is local governance and culture, that'll make a bigger difference to individual success or suffering than having or not having resources.

What resources change is how much outside observers notice. Are the millions of people living in squalid hell-holes under corrupt regimes any better off for not having resources? Hardly, it's more just that the world doesn't give a shit, because their plight isn't interesting.