The early game requires management of time, energy, and money. Some tasks require a lot of energy (such as chopping down trees), and some require none (such as walking to the shop to buy seeds). To get the most value out of your time, the player needs to make good decisions about how and when to spend energy. You can spend some of your other resources to get a bit more energy (such as eating crops, fish, or field snacks; but energy is certainly something you have to keep an eye on. But as you progress through the game, there are a bunch of things which make energy usage less important, and ultimately irrelevant. Actions cost less energy as you level up; you get easier access to food, and you get higher max energy from stardrops. I actually find it a bit disappointing that by the time I can cook good energy meals, I don't need them anymore because energy costs are already low. I reckon the energy management side of the game disappears too easily. Just as you gain access to meals which boost particular actions, those meals become almost pointless because energy costs are already so low. I find that disappoint. I want to make good use of my kitchen, but the meals just aren't useful to me. (They would be extremely useful in the early game, but I don't have a kitchen in the early game!) I think it would be better if energy didn't become quite so cheap. I reckon players should still need to bring a good meal with them if they want to spend all day in the mines, or all day chopping trees.
That's where most of my food ends up, going to the mines with me. I have a modded farm cave with a spa that restores energy so when I'm on the farm it's not an issue, but I always need food in the mines.
I use up quite a bit of food between HP in the mines, smashing every rock I see in the mines and trying to fit in everything I can every day
Ok, sure, food is useful for HP in the mines. And luck, speed, defence, and attack are useful food buffs in the mines too. I'm not trying to say that food is useless, but rather that energy is a game mechanic that disappears from the game. It's of critical importance in the early game; then of minor importance in the mid game; then completely irrelevant in the end game. In the early game, you can plan your day around strategic spa visits, or go out of your way to gather resources for field snacks. Finding food in a bin is a great boon. In the mid-game, keeping a couple of snacks in your backpack is generally enough to get you through anything; and it's pretty easy to get more food if you need it. In the late game, it's highly unluckly that you'll ever run out of energy at all. You'll have higher max energy, actions will cost lesson, your tools will be upgraded such that you'll need fewer actions to complete your tasks; and if you do need food, that food is more plentiful. I just feel like the gameplay would be a little more interesting if energy was still relevant later in the game. By the way, I'm not trying to say this is a huge problem, or that the game bad or anything like that. I'm just saying that maybe things could be better if the balance of energy was tweaked a bit so that it remained part of the game.
I get what you're saying, it's kinda the same with money imo. In the beginning you have to be very choosy what you spend it on but once you get a steady stream of income it gets progressively less and less important to worry about the cost of things, until it's eventually trivial. Both things could benefit from a bit of balancing in late game.
It's also the fact that you're getting better tools and leveling up skills for higher tool proficiency, which means you use less energy on tasks. Suddenly you only need a few swings to knock down a tree, and those swings each take less energy.
