If you had a port, or were trading with other players, then you could do even better.
To really drive this point home, suppose you want to collect ore. You can actually get 25% more ore by building on a wheat tile with a “6” and trading 4-to-1 with the bank than you could by building directly on an ore tile with a 2! If you had a port, or were trading with other players, then you could do even better.