[crooked-v]

> the physical material has to come from somewhere

Extended canon Star Trek has references to both (a) feedstock material storage, with big blocks or tanks of elementally pure materials that get shaved off and recombobulated as necessary by the replicators, and (b) synthesis of elements from pure energy on demand, though usually with the preference of the first method over the second because it's far, far less demanding on all the systems involved to just move atoms around.

[caseysoftware]

That works well if you're going TO a transporter pad.

It doesn't work when they use a transporter to go to a desolate planet.