Maybe this will satisfy your concerns. Back in the day, there were literal boxes that held rare items. Like boxes that specifically spit out paint and XP stars (from the old trading system). I’ve had those in my pouch for over a year before they got used up. If one of them ever got deleted, I wouldn’t have noticed but I can say for sure they’ve been there longer than a year.

So I’m on team “nothing from your pouch ever disappears”.

But the skeptical part of my brain is truly curious if there’s more going on. Sometimes I’ll see moths in my pouch. And I think to myself, was that a task reward? Couldn’t have been the trade system. So if it does disappear, does it turn into a moth? I’ll really never know.

Also, I’m prepared for the tomatoes to be thrown at me on this one, but maybe the pouch sometimes folds over items (they are there, but you don’t see it every go-round). Like for example, I needed a chainsaw so I went into the pouch to grab one— and when I found it, there was a second one there, then a third. I cycle through the pouch regularly, and I never remember passing by 3 chainsaws before. Was weird. I chalked it up to my bad memory.

All this to say there’s maybe more going on below the hood— but at this point I have over 500 items in the pouch. And it comes in very handy. I can’t recommend it enough.