I believe it's designed the way it is (allowing frequent rests) because a lot of the plot progression is tied to the camp.
That's why there's only one short rest and the combat's on the more difficult side. It's all structured to encourage you to go to camp frequently. That in turn moves a lot of these plot elements forward.
We'll have even more party members in the final game, so they'll want us to juggle our team around frequently (and moving their plots forward in camp) before we settle on our final 3 teammates.
The issue with that is that it weakens characters with short rest mechanics and strengthen casters.
They could increase the number of dialogues which can trigger in camp from 1 to 3 or 4 if they want the plot progression to be faster
