Yes, I always play without it. Was actually pretty manageable a while back, despite needing to give them a pile of ingestibles stuff to last a while. Now they won’t use them. Checked their effects and saw they were thirsty but they had an entire jug of water in their inventory. They’re also not eating the sandwhiches I give them, preferring to let them rot. Was peeved enough to just give them cracklins to live off but saw that those weren’t being eaten either.