Oh, yes, this feedback has been given many, many times. You're far from being the only player to find that this feels weird.
It is, indeed, contradictory messages and incentives.
It's as if we're playing a game that has been designed by several teams whose work was not coordinated. That, or the designers just don't know what player behaviour they want to encourage.
There are many other such contradictions in the game.
I made a
long list at some point, but one of the other worst-offenders is the passing of time. Many story elements strongly imply the notion of time (the Druids' ritual, the burning inn, the metamorphosis). Yet the world is utterly static. In fact, you can see from the conversation history that Long Rest take a few minutes.
I suppose the next-worst one is the location of camp. It is safely hidden in a pocket dimension when you Long Rest in the middle of a dungeon, but it must be somewhere on the map and not too hard to find since the Tieflings/Goblins join you there for a celebration.
