I have no idea why people figure this is such a pain. I’ve been playing with it for some time, and notice very little difference. You eat a reasonable amount of food, your character stops being hungry. Thirst needs to disappear faster, and there should probably be a bit simpler of a way of knowing how much you’ve eaten, but korg’s already aware of that. Most people know how eating works. Have you somehow been eating so much that you throw up?
4-5 hours is a normal time span to get hungry. People eat around 7-8 am, noon, and 5-6 pm for a reason.
You really don’t have to track nutritional values. Try a few plays through and see if you get vitamin deficient. It takes weeks to months, you’d have to work quite hard to get scurvy and that’s pretty much the easiest one to get. It’s meant to be a mid to late game hurdle to keep you from living off smoked spider meat forever, it honestly shouldn’t be affecting you in the early game, and if it is then rather than complaining conceptually, you should report it because it’s not working as intended.
Your complaints sound greatly like you’ve read the blurb on the PR and not attempted to play the game because it sounds too scary. If you’d like to actually offer feedback, offer it on what happens when you play.