burgingham wrote:I am not sure having either this or that kind of tedium qualifies as a meaningful choice.
It's not, but is there honestly any valid kind of choice when we're talking about a tedious task? There's no point disguising a request for something to be less tedious about "choice". This has nothing to do with choice, and I don't see any way for "picking stuff up vs inventory space" to be a meaningful or interesting mechanic. Considering right now: I can harvest an entire 10x10 wheat field with a single click. I harvest 20 flax tiles at a time before making a pile of flax an continuing every minute or so. Buckets have reduced the inventory management issue a tonne if you're willing to take the time instead.
This isn't fiddly anymore at least. It's slow though. But how exactly can you change that? It's a bulk collecting activity, just like mining.
So like I said, this isn't a request for interesting mechanics, it's a request for farming to be faster and scythes to essentially be removed (since they would serve no purpose except to cause this problem to arise again, no matter what the speeds are).
You could add in a sickle as a midpoint between scythes and hand picking, but yet again any minmaxer will dual account this still and the problem comes back.