I think the idea of a largely cosmetic day/night cycle (which should alter the lighting and stealth mechanics) isn't a bad one. It would be a simpler idea of limiting long rests than my proposed mechanic. Having the clock pause if anyone at all is in combat seems like a reasonable idea too.
I hear you. Lots of laziness from Larian's side indeed. This is the true reason why we don't have D/N cycle.
There are plenty of solutions.
The only laziness here is in your thinking, because you are not the one who would have to design, code, implement, test, debug, re-design, re-test the system, nor are you the one who has to decide what fraction of the game budget will be assigned to that task.
So tired of seeing the lazy "the developers are lazy" argument keep coming up.
