A good write up! I appreciate the color coding to make it easier to read!
For your ideas about food: In games that allow me to eat during combat, I usually end up hoarding potions I rarely use and devouring a bunch of food instead. In BG3, I'll use the big pieces of meat as healing items over potions or spells. I would actually prefer taking this out and making food and cooking a passive buff instead that lasts until long rest. I think there's a mod already on Nexus (DnDon't Starve) that changes how food works - although I it's a required survival system rather than a buffing system.
I feel like the game needs to emphasize pre-fight buffing, and an overhauled food system could do that. As someone who tends to play mmos solo, playing many games of this type as a tank, and having played tabletop only a few times, I've been having trouble personally synergizing the attacks of the party and casting too many spells during combat rather than outside. I know this is a personal problem, but I feel like this may be a common issue for some players - hence why a lot of players aren't using very powerful spells (was it Bless or Protection from Evil maybe). The problem might not be the spells, but that there is an unspoken learning curve that goes without saying to some, and is a complete mystery to others.
Imagine when the nice old tiefling lady in the Grove offers you her gruel, she could offer you the option to try to spruce up the brew by using the cooking pot - perfect tutorial on cooking that's short and sweet with an in lore hint at pre-buffing (full belly for the trek to Baldur's Gate). You learn that crafting/cooking meals gives better buffs that last till you long rest.
