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.
It doesn't weaken characters with SHM, but it does strengthen full casters, which is why combat is on the difficult side.
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
That could help somewhat, but only to a certain degree. Certain triggers don't happen until specific characters come across specific areas/events in the game. With more characters, the more this will happen. And they'll want to shake up the party composition regularly as you only have one Act to advance their plots and figure out who to take. The longer you spend outside of camp, the more inertia takes over. The fewer the changeups, the fewer the plots that will advance.
