Back when I was gun-heavy in my preps I never would have cared about the utility of owning a well machine, but then I had property which had previously been owned by a string of other survivalists who had already put in a well and multiple water tanks, with one water tank pulling water from a spring/drain pipe in the side of a mountain so that it could fill on its own.

Now I realize the cheap available land for the small to medium scale autonomous zones is in a lot of areas where discreet well drilling is going to be required, and you don't want local contractors getting very clued in to the locations and capacities of those wells or else some prick somewhere is going to decide to have a problem with it. That means running a compact rig that can be taken in discreetly, probably with the motor modified with a bigger muffler to run quieter, the well put in and then the equipment re-hidden so that the owners can claim the well had been there all along and probably installed by a previous owner. That is not to mention sinking wells out on TAZ sites which are great for temporary use except for having no water.

Some of the best sites for defense can't be lived in full time, so the best you can do is discreetly put in some facilities, maybe ammo caches, scope out the lanes of fire and lines of defense, but pre-dug latrine pits and wells would be a big bonus factor when it comes to some canyon or butte being converted to a base of operations by a mobile force. It is a big deal to be able to travel without hauling large water supplies around to places where you know that you can fill the water bladders on site.

A recon team / quartering party can move in early, make sure the wells and latrines are operational, then report back to the TAZ organizers that all is good to go. They secure the area, then the latrines get built (can be more effective to build plywood outhouses than haul porta potties around) and water bladder systems (they can go up to 500 gallons) put down and filled up with pumps to provide water for the encampment when more people start showing up.