Your journal keeps day to day conversation logs so you can track what happens on what date.
I won't argue with the rest of your post, you have some good points, but just for your information: the journal dates are a lie since they are not actually connected to anything else. I wrote some details about it in this thread
https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=97909&Number=776950#Post776950
