I don't know. Maybe you're right. Honestly, if they just made short rest more appealing, people would naturally long rest less. Lift the limit, do something more like Hit Dice, and keep the story prompting and encouraging people to not long rest. It'd probably be enough especially for first-time players who don't know that they can long rest unlimitedly.
But short rest needs to be promoted to make that work, and the limit does not promote that. I'm not sure Hit Dice does, though, either, to be fair. Like I said, roll a 1 and you feel ripped off.
So, thinking outside the D&D 5e box, what if they did this instead?:
1. As someone mentioned, do away with food as a cost for resting and make it something players can gather and cook/eat during either long or short rests. Consuming meals grants a bonus of some kind. I was now thinking of something like 1 Combat Inspiration for the whole party per something like 10 camping supplies you consumed during your rest (maximum of 4 Combat Inspiration/40 camping supplies each long rest). Combat Inspiration gives a character Advantage on a single attack or save roll. Just like with how they've implemented Inspiration currently, there is a party total, and you can have anyone in the party use Combat Inspiration at any time. They only work in combat, just like regular Inspiration right now doesn't work in combat.
2. Unlimit Short Rest at the party level. You can do it as much as you want as a party just like long rest.
3. At the character level, you get 1 HP Restore per level. Each HP Restore heals the character, as I said before, the average of their Hit Dice + Constitution score. So, 1d8 with +2 Con bonus is 7 HP.
4. You can use HP Restore more than once per Short Rest, so you can use them all at once if you need to, or you don't have to use any during a Short Rest. It's up to you.
5. You recover ALL HP Restores every long rest, so it's simpler and less confusing to people unfamiliar with the system.
6. You regain special abilities like Action Surge and Warlock Spell slots regardless of whether you spend HP Restore uses.
7. You can spend camping supplies during a Short Rest to get a bonus, just like with Long Rest. So, I was thinking you could also spend camping supplies - your choice how many - during a Short Rest to regain 1 Combat Inspiration per 5 camping supplies - again maximum of 4 Combat Inspirations, for 4 would be the limit regardless of Long or Short Rests. In this way, you could spend comping supplies to replenish your Combat Inspirations, thus promoting more short rests. Also, replenishing Combat Inspiration is cheaper than long rest, so it promotes taking a Short Rest as opposed to a Long Rest.
8. Dialogue is tied to both short and long rests when it makes sense. Again, obviously, you aren't going to trigger Raphael's visit or a Dream Lover dream during a Short Rest.
9. Arcane Recovery Revamped. You get 1 use of Arcane Recovery per character level. It works just like HP Restore, but it is separate from HP Restore. In other words, Gale at Level 4 would get 4 HP Restores and 4 Arcane Recoveries. He could spend 2 HP Restores during a Short Rest and 3 Arcane Recoveries, or whatever he wants. Each use of Arcane Recovery restores - I just know I'm going to get backlash for this - a wizard's spell slots by 50% (round down). So, at level 4, Gale would get 2 level 1 spell slots restored and 1 Level 2 each time he used Arcane Recovery. And he could do it up to 4 times per long rest. Simple. Not perfect, but it would make players who love wizards short rest more frequently as opposed to long rest if they knew they'd be able to get their spell slots back.
Okay, so I just threw this out there. It's not perfect, but I'm trying to think outside the box. Again, the idea is to give things purpose and meaning and to promote the use of both types of rest.
