don't like the new mechanic at all. I've spent more time this patch micro managing my stupid food items, putting everything into little bags, trying to organize them, moving them to camp, etc than actually enjoying the game. The hardcore "no rest" players that are ALREADY not resting want to continue to not rest, have at it. No need to force everyone else to play like they do.
There's actually a secondary discussion needed here and that is "enforcing" Long Rests on the party.
As annoying as you might find it, the reverse should not be true for my party. I don't use Long Rest currently because I don't need it, but that should not be right. Time, Important Cut-Scenes etc... are tied to this mechanic. Players being able to go all the way through to the end of Act 1 without resting should simply not be possible. Now it's quite possible that this has changed simply with food no longer healing you. Time will tell and it's definitely a step in the right direction. If I want to heal, I will need the Long Rest at some point.
But you have to find a balance between LR spam and over complexity (or fiddliness). If there is no fatigue (as there was in the original game), then we need something to make us rest, or you cannot tie it to the passage of time/story. You also should not simply be allowed to Long Rest ad nauseum without some form of cost or penalty or you have a Meta of characters with spell slots. We clamour for BG3 to be more like D&D and yet there is a clamour for not having resting restrictions? I mean no DM I know would allow you to Long Rest after every single encounter without rammifications.
What I will admit is that having not need to Long Rest as yet, I cannot have an opinion on how fidly or not it actuall is.
