With the restrictions the OP has chosen, it's necessarily going to be more complicated. It's just like you can make great bread with only water, flour and yeast, but if you need to make gluten-free bread that's even decent you're going to need to experiment more and be more complicated.
Similarly you can make darn good soap with 60% lard or tallow, 20% coconut and 20% olive or safflower. But vegan and no palm is going to be tough. (I'm not sure it can be done to be completely honest and IMO.)
Good point. But to use your GF bread example - you could easily spend hundreds of dollars to buy ingredients to make bunches of different recipes of GF bread. But it's probably better to start with one recipe you can make with ingredients you can find near you and see how that goes, before ordering ALL THE THINGS. I've made several different recipes of low-carb bread and I've spent a ridiculous amount of $ for ingredients I will never use again. My dad's diabetic and for a while he was obsessed with the idea of low-carb bread that was just as good as carb bread.
And to extend your metaphor further - what do you want to do with your GF bread? Make a sandwich? You'll need a bread that's fairly sturdy. Eat with a bowl of soup? You can have a softer, more tender bread. Crunchy crust? Texture? Sweet or savory? Depending on what you want, totally different set of ingredients and baking methods.
My best low-carb bread effort ended up being the cheapest.
Cheesy Bean Bread
1 15 oz. can canelli beans or other white bean (drained & rinsed)
4 oz cheese (I love mozzarella or a sharp cheddar)
4 large eggs
1 tsp. baking powder
2Tbsp melted butter (oil is okay, but butter is better)
1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt
Herbs (optional; any you like)
Preheat oven to 350.
Prepare an 8x8-baking pan by spraying it with Pam.
Use food processor to blend all ingredients EXCEPT baking soda to a fine consistency. Add baking soda and give it a quick blast to mix in the baking soda. Pour and bake.
My dad loves this with jalapeños.
