I was thinking here primarily of food, yes. The thing you use your food for, is the thing that make the food spoil.
As far as consumables go, I see simpler solution: streamline and limit inventory capacity, no send to stash. Tweak things enough, and people will end up selling stuff they are unlikely to use and keep things they are likely to use. Once they understand that they can carry only that many potions,scrolls etc. they shouid be more likely to use or sell spare items rather then leaving stuff on the ground. At least that generally what works for me.
And if player will have to choose what to carry in each playthrough, that only enhances uniquness of each playthrough. Maybe even character build choices wouldn't feel like wasted choice. I have Speaking wth Animals? Cool, I can sell the potions and carry something more useful to me instead.
That is probably not a realistic option, though - to achieve a good balance with such system the game would require a careful and deliberate design, and it is just not something I expect from BG3 at this point.
Sure, removing "send to stash" would limit hoarding and encourage use of items, but OP's suggestion
also discourages long resting because the more you long rest, the quicker your consumables will expire. The fact that it's more complicated is a feature, not a bug. Again, I think there are better ways of discouraging long resting (companions disapprove of wasting time, events in the world progress, limited amount of food) but consumables expiring (on the scale of like 5+ days, not only 1 or 2) isn't absolutely terrible imo.
That said, I also agree with streamlining practically everything about inventory management in BG3, and I also don't have much faith in Larian to have that careful and deliberate design.
