While having a second village isn't that terrible of an idea, they clearly aren't having any issues with space as it is, and the biggest limiting factor on space isn't living space for the people, it's the amount of farmland needed to support them. In this forest of death though it seems that what can grow is incredibly limited, unless it gets tilled by the all mighty farming tool. So the mc still has to go out and at least do the initial tilling of the land. Besides that, the forest isn't that safe of a place, as it seems that rather than normal animals, it's just filled with dangerous monsters, which would lead you to seeking to centralize your population as much as possible to protect against the danger. The only benefit here is to the women of the village, who are going to gain the advantage of remaining closer to the mc, without either having more competition for him, or other men that they aren't interesting in.