... God created everything outside of himself as a NATURAL first step. Meaning, it wasn't out of desperation. More precisely, as we've come to read over and over in the scriptures, he wills all things into existence out of love.
Love as a motive, doesn't seem to be obvious in a universe defined, formed and maintained by catastrophe and consumption. The scriptures, you elude to describe the human tendency to anthropomorphize. We give water and food to those we love, so it isn't surprising that some projected this upon a creator. In a similar anthropomorphic way, the same writer often assumed terrors and slaughter on those this creator didn't favor. If you really think about it, since only a 'few' are described as being so favored, the motivation for such a creator might be philosophically argued to have been a schadenfreude type pleasure in the suffering of others.
However, the writers of the Bible were not united in any particular perspective. Many assumed a predestination of fates. Some fated to suffer and be destroyed, some to suffer a 'little' but then be set free from this world. All 'creation' is said to be 'groaning and waiting' for some remedy to the catastrophe and consumption. IOW, the creation, as it existed, didn't reflect love but only aspects of it, and the promise of escaping it.
As I read the Bible, I see authors trying to make sense of what was all around them. Suffering, deprivation, random injustice and death and yet sufficient resources for the world to continue on.
I had a chipmunk who lives in my woodpile 'trained' to be fed by hand. It brought me and the chipmunk much pleasure. A few nights ago, we heard horrible squealing as the hawk tore his flesh. I imagine that brought the hawk much pleasure. Me and the chipmunk not so much. How do I make theological sense of that.