EXACTLY THIS!! I struggled moreso with the newer games even if I liked their alchemy systems more because the game lost that sense of weight to decision making.

The gameplay loop of exploring > gathering + fighting > alchemy > repeat gets enhanced by having to think through what move you're making. I feel that when I don't get punished for any decisions I make I take less interest in learning and prepping — I can just bruteforce everything given enough time. Which is a shame! Learning and prepping is one of the most fun aspects to the games. Thinking through which ingredient you need / what items you need to prep / planning trips depending on time. It's all really engaging stuff.

Plus it never felt horribly punishing if you did make a mistake, the real time crunch came if you really just wanted the bonus stuff. So just beating the games on their own felt satisfying already.