The new rest option does remove some of the overwhelming sleep/micromanagement cycling. It's that chain reaction, one little change effects everything with a system like this. Because you can gather food and recover stamina without passing many days naturally now (Without items), the difficulty doesn't increase as fast, and you can fight more without having to leave the instant death combat zones.
Easier/quicker to gather food (Go to the forest and alternate between gathering food and resting) = easier to stay in combat longer and finish quests quicker because you don't waste as much time managing the cycle of sleep/eat/urinate/bathe/etc as much. Good change, the micromanagement is balanced a lot better now. I'd have to play longer to see how it holds up later on and if it's still okay on the more difficult combat side, but good start at least. The game feels a lot less obnoxious to play/manage.
On paper it didn't seem like much but just helping that one aspect of gameplay makes everything flow better. The major issue of too much sleep cycling/time passing too quickly appears to be defeated, hooray. It feels like you can actually accomplish things in game in a realistic amount of time now too. A day or two out in the forest gathering or finishing a basic quest makes a lot more sense than a week or two. Not having to stop off in a random zone to sleep before entering the cemetery over and over again is really nice too. The full sleep also still has use for recovering from injuries.
Now I'm testing the ai teammates and boy is it difficult to not hit them, lol. There goes my morality, ended up beating a dog to death that wouldn't stop running/jumping in front of my attacks.
The game is at a point now where I'd rate it pretty well thanks to the rest improvement though, it's much more playable/enjoyable now.