I don't think it's intended to be a new realm like the Nether. It's primarily an arena for the dragon boss fight. They physics of the dragon would screw with the normal world too much to just let him loose there. The End is a container for him.
I was pretty off on my idea to build a base there. I guess it'd be fine for a base after the dragon is dead, but then why bother.
I've moved to doing prep work just outside of the stronghold. Prep work is boring, so I keep getting distracted, but I'll have enough supplies soon enough. By chance, trading with villagers has allowed to convert a lot of readily available material into diamonds, weapons, XP bottles, etc... so that distraction was actually really helpful.