First, a few nits:
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Dropping 40 volume of items with a backpack takes the same amount of time as just dropping a backpack already. Or it should, at least.
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The stacking encumbrance penalty is the major thing against multiple smaller containers. You CAN wear three backpacks, but you suffer 5 encumbrance for doing so. One duffel bag only gives you 3 encumbrance for the same storage space.
Frankly, I don’t see a more granular inventory system as actually contributing in any degree to gameplay, and only kicking simulation elements down the road in regards to realism. I’ll address the second part of that first:
If you’re applying ‘realism’ in the sense of pockets to objects - for the sake of realism - you need to be consistent or else it’s self defeating. An example problem item is the trenchcoat. It provides a pile of storage (24), but in reality that storage is broken up over several pockets across the trenchcoat, none of which is large enough to hold a single size 12 manhole cover. So for each item, you would need to specifically consider the number of pockets and size, which would be a massive amount of actual brainpower expended on an item-by-item basis in addition to the tedious data entry aspects. Then you need to consider the nature of the ‘pockets’ listed - storing a couple handfuls of oatmeal in a jacket pocket is certainly possible, but storing the oatmeal in helmet netting is not. So you would need to have special flags on storage items to determine what kind of containers can hold what kinds of objects, and corresponding flags on all the different objects out there. And you’d still run into the volume issue of individual dimensions - a two by four is about six feet long, but only has a volume of 6, so it could fit in a larger trenchcoat pocket unless you also specifically look at individual item dimensions and check container dimensions along all axes. There’s more issues with a realistic reflection, but addressing the above are part of the baseline for a ‘realistic’ inventory simulation.
Which is only really the ‘cost’ aspect. The ‘benefit’ aspect would be incredibly, incredibly tiny, because it wouldn’t significantly change player behavior on a macro level. Players would still be able to carry the same amount of volume, players would still prefer a military rucksack to two backpacks, and players would not gain any new or interesting inventory behaviors that can impact day to day play. The primary benefit that I can see would be organization of items on the ground, in that you could make your own go bags or toolboxes or whatever on the fly, but that’s minuscule and I really haven’t run into a case where I’d actually ever need to use one. In practice, it would just be persistently annoying as you would have to reshuffle everything you own constantly to ensure that your largest volume ‘pocket’ was as empty as it could be. It would actually reduce the fun of playing the game.
I have serious issues supporting something that would have serious cost in terms of effort while providing negative value to the game. And keep in mind - because it’s negative value, even if the necessary code/data to implement it fell from the sky because ~magic~, I couldn’t see how it would be worth doing because it would be Not Fun. The reason the current system works is because it assumes the character figures out all of the above on their own without the player needing to come along and tell them where to put their loose oatmeal, which works for any other tedious and stupid thing that you would have to do in reality, like buckling/unbuckling your seatbelt, taking off jackets before taking off shirts, or . And it’s not really important if you keep your comic book or candy bars in your cargo pocket, your backpack, or webbed to your forehead. Even games like Nethack, with its almost neurotic levels of micromanagement, doesn’t see value in individual storage locations beyond those that provide direct gameplay benefits (fireproof bags for scrolls, bottomless bags for heavy things).
There’s definitely improvements to the inventory system that I can see, but I just don’t see how this kind of granularity could possibly be a solution and haven’t heard any real arguments for it other than ‘realism’.
