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I have been thinking along the same lines. Covering the hills and plains with roads, farms, and big cities is one intensive way to settle. But what about a less dense manner, including forests, swamps, and mountains? What about encorporating groups of fairies, primitive humanoids, and such as pockets inside your nation? Or, if as you state, your 'Natualist' players with druids/rangers/nature clerics want a differnt way for roleplay reasons?
While this doesnt really cover full blown wide-ranging nomadism, I've come up with the following house rules to handle this sort of naturalism. Hopefully it is less optimal than standard farms and cities, but encourages widespread, low density settlement.
Occupied/Settled (1 BP in plains, forests, hills / 4 BP in swamps, mountains): Instead of a farm or city, you can choose to lightly settle a claimed hex. This does not require a road. [i]-1 Consumption; and +1 Loyalty, Stability, Economy, or Defense (choosen at creation for roleplay reasons and cannot be changed later)
This rule lets you fill up lands (particularly forests) with huntsmen, gatherers, herders, and such without being a complete drain on the kingdom. It can also be used to represent making pacts with fairies and other humanoids. You can make a pact with fairies in a hex that 'civilized' people from your kingdom won't hassle them. You claim the hex (so any problems are your problems), but you don't have to send patrols or support fledgeling homesteaders (-1 Consumption negates the 1 Consumption cost of the hex). In exchange, everyone thinks you have treated the fairies fairly (+1 Loyalty).
Noting where the bonus comes from adds some flavor and roleplay hooks. Defense might mean youve recruted the lizardfolk of the square into your army. Stability could represent cowing the kolbolds so they dont cause trouble.
Mechanics-wise, this isnt very powerful. The Command DC goes up by 1 for each hex, so this only offsets that for one dimension. Upping the bonus to +2 might be appropriate. My quick playtests, with a mixture of settled, farmed, and city hexes, didnt show the DCs becoming too high fast.
Village/Outpost Building: Buildings can be build outside of city districts for +1 BP per building square.
For example, you can build a Shrine in a forest for 7BP (normally 6 BP in a city), or Castle for 58 (4 more for its four squares). This encourages spreading some buildings out as small villages. As each building square represents 250 people, you can think of a Smith in a hex as a village with a smith and other craftsmen. This also encourages using up the various free and half price buildings in various hexes, without making them cities. The Temple of the Elk makes just as much sense rebuilt in the forest as in the middle of a new city.
You might want to limit it to one buliding per hex, and not allow any building with house prerequisites. Slightly increased cost in mountains and swamps might also be needed.
I like the ideas some people have had with camps, logging, mines, and such. But they seem more expensive and don't offset the consumption of the hex. So they are more like a big group of loggers coming in and trying to maximize profits, clear-cut, and live off imported food. They help expand settlement into forests and mountains, but don't quite fit the naturalist mood. I might use a mixture of both options. (With rivers like roads as well).