You could still spend your "adventuring" days doing absolutely nothing.
Why is it a problem ?
I want the game to tell me when I can long rest.
I don't want the game to choose what I must spend my time for.
The clock thing, honestly, to me sounds exactly like free rest, with an additional click on the clock to set the time, and a few seconds of animation to watch the time-lapse. You could still spend your "adventuring" days doing absolutely nothing
It's not because the game decide when you can rest, exactly like in your suggestion.
You can play with the restriction but players can also wait until the game allow them to rest if they have to or if they want to.
Right now you're the only one to define when time has come. This is exactly why long rest in BG3 is an issue.
You're not thinking about it how you should imo.
No one should care if someone wants to spam long rest. What you want is mechanical restrictions. One does not prevent the other.
