Only applying to a few classes and subclasses is a major part of it, yes. 5e is the only time I recall our party ever having disagreements about resting.
In old editions it was like:
Fighter: How about we rest?
Wizard: I'm fine to keep going.
Fighter: Well, I'm at 10 hp.
Cleric: And I'm out of cure spells.
Wizard: Camping it is.
In 5e, on a (blessedly) few occasions:
Fighter/Warlock/Monk: How about we short rest.
Sorcerer: I'm fine to keep going. I've got half my spells left.
Barbarian: Me, too. I've got Rages left.
Rogue: I'm alright for another few encounters.
Cleric: Me, too. I've used my turn undead but I don't need it. Do you still need healing?
Fighter/Warlock/Monk: No, I'm close to max, but I have no abilities left after two encounters. I'm on auto-attack until we short rest.
Sorcerer: Let's just keep going. There's no benefit for the rest of us to short rest at all.
Fighter/Warlock/Monk:
More often it looked like this:
Fighter/Warlock/Monk: How about we short rest.
Sorcerer: I'm just about spent. I've got 2 spells left.
Barbarian: I've got 1 Rage left, but that's it.
Rogue: I'm alright for another few encounters if I can heal a bit.
Paladin: I have no spells left and no paladin healing left. Don't you still need healing?
Fighter/Warlock/Monk: We've got hit dice for healing. I can keep going. I just want to recover my abilities.
Sorcerer: Let's just long rest. There's no benefit for the rest of us to short rest at all.
Fighter/Warlock/Monk: Fine, sure.
So the fact that the Fighter (or Warlock or Monk) can short rest recover often
just doesn't come up.
It was
bizarre. My first hint that something was rotten in the state of rest & recovery. Especially because hit dice are the only thing that
doesn't fully recover on a long rest. It's
less attrition to burn spells to heal and recover them with a long rest than using hit dice.
I still remain convinced that the way the DMG got to 6-8 encounters was to take the old 3-4 encounter difficulty and low-ball it. That way you double the number of encounters per day and decrease their difficulty. Why do you want to do that? Because you increase the likelihood that the PCs will want to short rest to spend Hit Dice instead of long rest to recover everything because attrition per encounter is reduced. It's a subtle way to encourage short rests. Unfortunately, it doesn't work so well with non-standard adventuring days. Also, a lot of people seem to complain about encounter difficulty and difficulty getting the PCs to complete that many encounters. I know when I run, I can regularly pack the whole day with Deadly or Deadly+ encounters, and if I don't my players get bored with combat.
