First thing's first, I'm fairly new here, been playing for 2 months now.

But why do soooo many people put their vendors inside their 'houses'? And why is most of the camp even outside the shelters?

I feel like your outdoor area is for the visitors, and then the shelters are to decorate and such. Or at least have a dedicated visitor area right where you load in. But multiple vendors up, build tables, stash/ammo/scrap boxes, and call it a day.

I don't want to run through your camp playing hide and seek to find your vendor, I certainly don't want to load an entirely separate instance for your shelter, then have to reload the world again, just to find out you have 34 copies of mole miner gauntlets in your vendor.

If your kid setup a lemonade stand at your house, you certainly wouldn't put it upstairs in your house; or worse, in the basement that takes you have to wait to unlock the door going in and out.

If you want a small house outside, awesome, just don't put your vendor in it. If I want to take the time to go through your camp, I will, but why would you force everyone to waste time like that?