Economics is not more than just the distribution of resources, no. The goal is to have efficient distribution of resources so that people can have the things they need within their means if possible, and to find new ways to process resources to produce things that make peoples lives better.

What works is largely about what you're trying to achieve, which is why when you see people trying to achieve things other than what I said, you wind up with mass famine, forced migration, shortages, and unnecessary expense. You see these things because they're not trying to avoid these things, they have other goals in mind.

There is a political aspect to economics, in that those who want to siphon resources away from efficient distribution and towards their goals will use political machinery to coerce a population. You see this in many instances, ranging from holodomor to artificially inflated drug prices in the US.