"Realism at all costs" may not be the most important thing in a game, but here we have case where being a bit more realistic would actually implicitly fix a broadly criticized game exploit.
"At all costs" no, but in general realism should be strived for if there's no good reason to do otherwise. (That as a side note, I agree with the post.)
Btw, barrels have one characteristic feature: they roll really well. Perhaps we could simply roll the barrels by pushing?
Can you, please, tell where exactly you saw 1 cubic meter barrels in the game?
Look:
Standard BG3 barrel in comparison with a throne
https://images.app.goo.gl/AWAyUYchQdf2X7uT6 and it doesn't seem 1 cubic meter for me. Not even tall enough and far away from wide enough.
Standard 50l real barrel in comparison with a table
https://images.app.goo.gl/AWAyUYchQdf2X7uT6For the rest you're surely right, it should not be easy to drag or throw them. Again - strength checks.
(Psst, your links are the same!)
But you're right. Now that I think about it, two 25 l fermenters are about the size of a normal barrel, so say it would weigh ~60 kg.