Oh man, I'm so glad the game is making me pull food out of a box, then put it into another box before I can rest. This is SO engaging!!!
To be fair, you're not required to put food into the box. It's entirely your choice whether to:
a) keep food in your bag, making it available for immediate use but contributing to your weight limit or
b) send the food to camp, freeing up inventory space but requiring you to remove it from the box to use it.
A big problem with the current system is that there is no reason to keep food in your inventory while actively exploring. As others have suggested, Larian could require food to short rest: maybe ~3 units per character. If they implemented this, then allowing long rest to automatically use food from the stash makes more sense balance-wise, as there remains an incentive to keep some food with you. As the game is now, food is only used when we have access to the stash, we find ~unlimited food, and different food types don't give different benefits, so what's even the point of having this mechanic?
Honestly I'd also be fine with Larian completely removing the camp stash during Act 1, assuming of course that they also remove many of the trash items, severely reduce the amount of food found, and consolidate all food into stackable "rations". In a more immersive world (namely where the dumb, gamey teleportation sigils are an out-of-universe player convenience and not an in-universe travel mechanic) our camp each night would be in a different location as we travel and explore. Keeping a stash of ~unlimited carrying capacity is then unfeasible.
We could only get access to a stash when we have a set base of operations - e.g., a tavern room in Baldur's Gate.
