Daniel Giddings

I take two machetes for clearing brush. My go-to cutter I found in a junk box for $5. Handmade in S. America somewhere, probably cut out of an old saw blade. It's not pretty, but it's light, comfortable, hair shaving sharp and sails through anything up to 1". Second favorite is a heavier Tramontina Bolo machete, that one will go through 3" saplings in two cuts.
What I look for: a thicker 18" blade, carbon  steel, no sharpened tip, wood handle, forward balance, canvas sheath. Never used a lanyard myself, but it comes in handy. OK, the edge doesn't "need" to be knife sharp, but it should at least be clean with no rolls or burrs. This is from many years of professional sharpening, martial arts and land clearing.
Machetes can be very tiring if they're used as chopping tools instead of cutting tools. With a good edge, proper angle and follow through (not stopping the blade at the cut, but cutting through) and powering the cut from the shoulder (if possible), it shouldn't take much effort. Keep your non-working side back and out of the way of the cut, know where your other hand is at all times! An easy way to practice blade alignment is to make cuts in the air and listen for a "whistling" sound. That means the blade is cutting the air cleanly; as opposed to a "whoosh", which is air slapping off the flat of the blade.
"Cringe" whenever I see files being used for regular blade maintenance.... I hone my edges like a knife blade and use medium/fine ceramic stones for touchup work. (Excessively OCD by most people's standards, admitted.)

The only method we've found to work in our area is tire planters. Lay down 1" wire mesh and stack the tires five high. When it's time to harvest, just kick over the top few tires. It's a free resource from any tire shop, far less labor than digging and keeps the gophers out.
We're getting back into it after a few years, restarting the crop from seed. Going to experiment with filling the bottom two tires with chips and the top ones with soil/compost.

"A big part of why people get disillusioned with homesteading is that they start day 1 with a list of 100 things to do, then finish the day cranky and sore with 1/2 of one thing done." Was it you who said that, Paul?

We've had poor success with paid workers on our property. The amount of time and instruction it took for them to do even simple tasks was a losing proposition for us. There's a strong lad who comes over once a week on worktrade to help with mindless muscle tasks, that's all that's needed.
Did my time in the Bootcamp. Heck of a ride, but I'd rather stay a tradesman than be a farmer any day, lol!

Clif Notes version: Been there, done that. A few times. It sucked.
As the OP states, so much is due to environment. Most people (or peoples) who have done this long term are specialists in one bio-region. The flora, fauna, climate, weather, available resources, etc can be highly variable; even just a few miles or few thousand feet of elevation change can make a big difference.
OK, let me back up. Are we talking about a wilderness survival or or a wilderness living situation? Basic priorities will still apply: Air, Thermo-regulation (which covers both fire and shelter), Water, Calories (which is different from nutrition) and so forth. The difference is in mindset and applied skills.
A wilderness living situation is either a lifestyle choice to go native (you're braver than me!) or an extended outing for fun and education. Sustainable harvesting, primitive living skills, bushcrafting, etc are awesome hobbies with good practical applications. Just remember that it's fun because you're still in control of the situation.
A survival situation is when things are out of your control. The priority is no longer enjoyment, it's now living long enough to be found. With modern Search and Rescue, that's usually within 72 hours. All a person needs to do is hold tight and not do anything stupid for 2-3 days (assuming people know you're missing and where you went). Provided they can keep warm (or cool) and don't get too dehydrated, nearly anyone can go that long without food. Foraging and hunting is generally unnecessary. Knowing how to survive that long with just your Every Day Carry equipment is a doable goal for most people.
If this is an extended event (bugout, self extraction, disaster, etc), then the rules change. Sustainability? Strip that tree and pillage the nest, you need the calories! Chuck the hand drill and give me a thumb drill (Bic lighter)! This is likely a do or die situation. If you have to explain it to the judge, that means you lived long enough to do it.
The point to my rantings: What are you practicing for? Wilderness living skills, like many of those listed in the above responses, will impart skills and confidence for a more comfortable and enjoyable outing, even if things do go wrong. Do not mistake these for being necessary for, or even applicable to, a survival situation. Good skills done at the wrong time can still kill you. The mindsets and skillsets are different! Begin with the end in mind and understand what you are training for!
Thus ends the rant.

Must add: Knowing instructors who have hosted their own major network shows, and several "Alone" contestants, I will state that survival shows are rubbish. They exist for entertainment, NOT educational purposes, and anything you see done in them should be taken with a whole truckload of salt. Likewise, mental knowledge (watching Youtube) and physical knowledge (actually doing it) are not the same thing.
Don't even get me started on Tom Brown Jr....

My favorite quote from Tsunatomo Yamamoto, author of the classic Samurai book "Shadow Under Leaves": "In any undertaking, those who have descended to the depths and returned shall prove the most useful; while those who can only do one thing well shall always prove the most useless. There are many useless people."

I love jumping feet first into something new. But there are only so many hours in the day for new things and everything else that already needs to be done, is there? Argg!

Is anyone else a fan of hiking quilts? I was converted years ago and can never use a regular sleeping bag again.
https://enlightenedequipment.com/
Depending on your point of view, it's either a quilt with a foot pocket or a sleeping bag sans back and hood. They unzip into a full size quilt or can be strapped and cinched up the back to eliminate drafts.

I was involved in the "survivalism" scene for a lot of years before getting disgusted with the commercialism and fear mongering that it seems to have become. Odd, since what would be "survivalism" today would have been "permaculture" several hundred years ago. The object of survival doesn't change, only the terms and mindset behind it.
What helped to clarify things was marking a difference between "Survivalism" and "prepping". Survivalism implies a skills based approach, learning as much as possible to be self-sufficient in many different situations and environments. A major factor in this approach is community and social capital on various levels. Prepping implies a reliance on material goods: stockpiling, caching, "preps", etc. Which can see a person through lean times, but it runs out, breaks, gets lost, etc. So it has it's place too, but is more limited them most would think.
If we look at "survivalism" as a spectrum of proactive responses, all these things have a place, including permaculture. Now the discussion becomes a question of timeline (long vs short term preperations) and stratagy. Because at the end of the day, we come back to our main goal: the purpose of survival is to survive.
For anyone just getting into it, I recommend Selco Begovnic for a survival perspective and Dasiy Luther for a preppers perspective. Have learned a lot from both of them.