I imagine the reason they made it the way they did is because it is much more easily tuned than a "new" system of management. This way they can add a difficulty slider that affects how much weight a character with "x" Strength can carry/push/throw late on in the development process and let players choose their personal level of cheese. It seems to me that this is a much more sensible, consistent and adaptable process than we had previously, and can be adapted to keep player agency at the forefront further down the line.
Agreed. You could completely end B-mancy at this point by simply changing the weights on the barrels themselves to something a bit higher. As it stands its much more limited now. Nobody is going to be holding 7-8 barrels in inventory to toss out at a moments notice.
