Is there a way to knock out fast? The wooden club is bad
In addition to all the other things mentioned, Halloween raids bring special Halloween clubs with 15 faint. They look silly, but are quite effective in midgame. And you can equip them to some NPCs.
Do mines have a better iron to stone ratio as you go more north or different biomes, I don't think I'd notice even if I do test and see what's up.
The early mid game seems pretty iron bottle necked, especially if you don't find either cave or go the workshop route, took me a while before I looked at the guide map after thinking iron can't be this rare for how often it's used.
There doesn't seem to be a way to improve iron production by villager-operated mines. Mining the iron personally seems to be the only way.
Is there any way to disable the raids? I am good with everything else but the raids are bullshit and I would rather not deal with them.
Yes. Just set up your totems so that the number of raiders would be negative. Early-game solution is to rush the plant workbench.
Alternatively, get a raid magnet amulet, put it on a villager, and put a villager on top of a really high tower. That will cause the raiders to be unable to find them, swear a lot and cancel the raid.