It would be nice if short rests could be turned into something more than a quick way to heal/reset skills and could give you the chance to catch up with companion convos you triggered while adventuring.
This is basically the answer right here. By making short rests into a mini-instance you triple the chance to proc conversations, increase incentive to take short rests rather than long rest every encounter through the game, and can give them some in-game relevance like using rations or whatever. As things stand it's way too easy to miss too much content, which basically boils down to wasted dev time and effort. They've worked so hard to make these interactions really interesting and compelling, but I have over 100hrs now in-game and I don't think I've seen more than half in any single playthrough. That sucks, both for players and for creators.
