As I've discussed elsewhere, I think the rest mechanic is fine. I think that replacing this mechanic with cooldowns would make the game too different from the D&D ruleset.
I also think that camping is useful as an opportunity to spend time with your companions. I don't know if it's necessary to be able to free roam around the camp though.
What I'd prefer is if they take some inspiration from other games that have some good ideas for camping minigames.
In Expeditions: Viking you have campsites dotted around the world map, where you assign characters jobs such as cooking, hunting etc.
In Final Fantasy XV you need to find a campsite to start the camping minigame.
Pathfinder: Kingmaker has its own solution that allows you to camp almost anywhere.
These all seem to use similar ideas. Personally, I think EV does the best job of this, but I do like the immersiveness of the camping in FFXV.
As you can see, there have been several recent games using rest mechanics.
PS: Rationing skills is a core part of D&D for most classes
You should essentially be forced to ration your short rests (or eliminate short rests entirely) between campsites where you will be able to long rest. Or, maybe they could design it so there's no limit on short rests, but there's a cooldown and their effectiveness diminishes the more times you do it until having a long rest.
Additionally, if you're worried that having to rely on resting to recharge skills will motivate you to grind for scrolls so you can get away with having unlimited abilities, then to me that's a sign that Larian should make it impractical for you to grind for scrolls so you're not tempted.
I also think that Larian should remove the implication that long rests are a "bad thing". Currently you're discouraged from long rests due to the implication that it makes the tadpole grow stronger. This should be removed. I think it would be enough to just geographically limit your ability to long rest by saying you can only do it at designated campsites.
Finally, can I suggest that you update the thread subject to something more descriptive of your suggestion regarding rests/cooldowns?
