I haven't read the entire thread, so this might have been mentioned already, but people spawning long rest will end up locking themselves out of certain paths/interactions. The game world isn't 100% static/waiting for you.
Two examples from early access: - the owlbear mother can be found dead, killed by another group of "adventurers". - Waukeen's Rest event is on an invisible timer the moment you crash land on the beach.
I am not 100% sure but my experience has been these are both location triggered, not time.
If you visit - or pass by - Waukeens rest but don't deal with it then it concludes on its own at the next long rest.
I am not sure about the Owlbear but I thought it was once you visited the Shattered sanctum and didn't deal with the Followers of the Absolute with Edwin then they go back and return with Goblins and so you find dead Goblins in the cave.
For the Owlbear, I've seen report from people who found the cave and long rested before going in and it was dead, not just after going to the Shattered Sanctum first.
For Waukeen, they might have changed it, back in the early days of EA people were talking about it having a X long rests timer, but maybe they didn't realize it was just going near and long resting first.
