I agree and don't. Mostly agree. Auntie Ethel fight is really hard without a long rest. Tried it. It sucks.
However, the concept you have proposed makes sense. You shouldn't be able to trigger this type of event, rest 8 hours, come back at your leisure, etc. I'd rather get more options than be forced to long rest before every boss. SO anti-climactic.
My issue with resting, besides this, is it is tied to dialogue. So if I don't long rest frequently I miss character development. I also don't like when characters tell me they are tired when they have hardly done anything. We ran through town for 5 minutes. Guess we need to call it a day. All because someone wants to say something to me. That's dumb. I feel like I'm punished for playing smart and not resting a ton.
I also think that there needs to be overarching consequences. If you long rest, thus ending the day, too many times, the gobbos raid the grove and kill the tieflings, or the druids do and seal off the grove just before the gobbos arrive. This would not result in game over. It would just mean bye bye grove.
Also, there should be tadpole side effects to resting too much. The more you rest, THAT is what triggers thr dream guy/girl faster, and if you use Illithid powers, even faster.
This would REALLY cut down on players resting after every battle I would think.
Also, food is dumb. Should be a requirement to resting HP recovery, not used in battle. Who eats ribs in combat, let alone as a bonus action? This would also make resting more limited and food more important.
