This has always how I've seen it, the shortfall of spellcasters was always resource management not efficacy, which is why managing when a party can rest is so important, all the more so in a cRPG because the player can theoretically just rest after every encounter if the game doesn't tax them in some way.
Yes, well said! It's limitation of resources and a meaningful obstacle to replenishing those resources that keeps casters (esp. wizards) from being over-the-top powerful. And that's why any D&D game that eliminates or significantly weakens this cost for wizards is making things rather ridiculous. The Owlcat forum is filled with wizard fans whining about the need to rest in the Pathfinder games. Thank God Owlcat has thus far refused to back down on resting.
There are no penalties for frequent resting in this game. You may as well rest as you fight, it doesn't matter in the long run. There is probably only one quest that can spoil a few things if you rest too much (the very beginning of the game). Later, the more often you rest, the better because then there are more events. There is a mechanic of abbysal corruption but to be honest it doesn't matter. Most maps are too small to require more than one rest, and in larger locations you often find objects that remove them.
Oh sure. My point wasn't that you can't rest easily enough as much as you want. It is that on the Owlcat forum there are a lot of people demanding that resting (and fatigue) be completely removed from the game because it gets in their way of uber-powerful wizardry. They want a system where a wizard can cast as much as they want with no resource limitations. And that's what I meant by saying Owlcat has rejected this and drawn a line on it.
