Why should I have to build a town to claim a resource?
If you build a town than you have to build troops to guard it.
Also towns have to be at 6 hexes apart, so to get some resources you will have to expand the town so it's zone of control covers the near by resources. Then it's building houses, farms, etc. to expand the town. Expanding towns is no longer as easy unless it's next to a food resource.
I liked the old way better, having Pioneers capture and build resources. If a Pioneer can build a town, why not a mill, farm, mine, etc.