Yes, I agree with those points. My take on it is that fish&bread is a placeholder/sample of what may come for additional recipes. I hope that is true, else its just extra dumb, as noted above. We can hope that maybe there would be a couple of fish-based stamina stews or a eitr fish.

And I agree the trader lock is a frustration.

It absolutely needs work; this felt like a half-complete change pending future additions to it. The inventory vs quality mess is a huge problem. I remain neutral on the harpoon, but all in all, it would hurt nothing to enable it and make people happy.

And I still enjoy it once in a while as a break from combat and exploring. The key here is that once in a while part... I am fished out dealing with the new system, and done with it for a bit. I do have an angler hole and can get normal stuff near my main home, so its there when I decide to go again