>Ayn Rand didn't write novels about homesteading

Galt's Gulch seems to fit that description.

>none of the characters in her books are self sufficient.

I think they were in the sense that they, within the fiction of the books, had irreplaceable economic skills that made them fortunes. They were (again just in the logic of the books), more than pulling their weight.

Doesn't mean I agree with it as a system but I can see the internal consistency in this respect at least.