tl/dr - Summer smolder doesn't bring anything good to the game. Replace it with a non-constant dust storm.
There are different things in games that add challenge and identity to the game. In Don't Starve we are presented with several clocks that constantly tick down on us as we play the game. Starting with darkness and the day / light cycle players learn to build a torch, and later to build miner hats, lanterns, and other light sources to keep the darkness at bay. In Winter the darkness time is increased requiring players to adapt to better light sources, or suffer huddled around their campfire wasting time, still consuming food...
Other challenges come such as sanity, combat, and even Giants. Giants threaten our base and force us to be on guard during their seasons. We must be ready to flee our base and engage in combat lest they destroy all we have worked for. Giants are both a curse and a blessing, as besting these challenges provides us with rare loots that we can use to create even more effective gear. Basically the world gives us challenges, ways to overcome them, and then rewards that allow us to be even better in the world for besting these challenges. Even Frog Rain gives us the reward of a million little jerkys for dealing with them.
There is one challenge that stands alone as both unrelenting, and unrewarding. Summer Smolder is a constant threat in summer to burn anything. It can start from trees, butterflies, twigs, pine cones, ect. It can even start from seeds dropped randomly by birds, and from world-regrowth tree samplings. The punishment is harsh as great swaths of the world can be destroyed. There is no reward for dealing with summer smolder, and no more efficient way of handling it. We have 1 structure that becomes the defining point of our base design. Every structure needs to be within it's reach, and we must constantly fuel them in paranoia of our base being entirely ruined...
OR - we build our base where there is no smolder. Going underground during Summer or the Oasis. I don't believe forcing players to simply avoid a large part of the game is an engaging feature. There is no challenge or reward or incentive to deal with it, so it becomes a black spot on the map where you simply avoid it entirely... Unlike dealing with the temperature where we can craft better clothes, our options for Summer Smolder are to design our entire base around Flingo-matics or build the entire base around avoiding it all together. There is no engagement here.
With the re-vamp to the Oasis and the addition of the Ant-Lion we already have a better method of challenging the player during Summer anyway. We hear a rumble alerting us to the Ant-Lion's punishment allowing us to react as best as possible for our situation. We can also spend time fishing in the Oasis and returning a few times to feed the Ant-Lion presents, OR we can simply fight the Ant-Lion and be done with it for the Summer. It gives us an engaging challenge that we can confront in different ways, with different rewards for how we act.
At this point in the game I feel we can simply be done with Summer Smolder. Most skilled players simply avoid it entirely by playing underground or using the Oasis, which shows just how un-fun it is to deal with. Granted, playing in the caves is fun - but in Summer it isn't by choice. The caves give us their own challenge and reward without needing to be shoved down there for a season.
Summer Smolder is also incredibly uninteresting. It's simply "Fire can happen at any time." There is no anticipation to it coming, and no elation for overcoming the challenge. It would be more interesting to have the Dust Storm as a temporary event across the top side world similar to Rain Storms in Spring. This gives players an incentive to get the goggles even if they don't live in the Oasis, but also doesn't force them to wear the goggles full time like the Oasis does. The Dust Storm would be very challenging in tandem with any other event such as the Ant-Lions tantrum or a Hound Attack, but would not be lethal on its own. It gives a more varied experience in play where you may live through a Dust Storm + Ant-Lion or Dust Storm + Hound Attack as you hold everything together for the season compared to Summer Smolder where it is an ever-present, indirect threat that is never experienced as a challenge, only as a punishment.
At this point I think Summer Smolder just needs to be removed from the game.
(To anyone who says to turn it off in world gen: This isn't about MY experience, it is about the game's experience. I could turn it off in world gen, but instead I just play in the Oasis and Caves during the summer. This perspective is not that Summer Smolder is too difficult, but more that it is completely uninteresting. It doesn't give any fun to the game the way every other experience like Hound Attacks and Giant Spawns, Ruins, Full Moon, New Moon, Frog Rain - ect. Everything else in the game can be fun, and challenging, where Summer Smolder is like if there was a Giant that you couldn't kill, but had to endlessly kite all season long...)