From what I've read a lot of people who complain about stamina in this particular Alpha are really complaining about the
max stamina that doesn't refill until you eat something. Normal stamina that depletes from activity and then regens when you stop moving is an obvious mechanic that everybody understands, but the max stamina is something new and it's not immediately apparent how it works.
The problems with it are:
A) It isn't obvious why max stamina depletes
In this Alpha it took me a while to figure out why my max stamina kept going down. I didn't realise it was connected to food. It's not obvious. There is no food indicator, so you just see that stamina cap getting smaller and smaller through seemingly no fault of your own. If I was a new player, I might have rage quit from frustration, but I kept going only because of my love for this game.
In A16, it was clear that you lost max stamina because you died. As a result, you would avoid doing really stupid / high risk things in the game so that you could stay alive and not get that penalty, especially if you were hunting that Steam achievement for high wellness. I forget what it was (180?).
B) The max stamina is penalised too much
In this Alpha I haven't noticed exactly how low your your max stamina can go (20 maybe?), but it seemed pretty severe to the point that my character was behaving like a 90 year old with asthma.
In A16 the max stamina only depleted to a minimum of 70 (or was it 75?). It wouldn't go below that. 70 is not great but it's manageable. It doesn't turn your character into an invalid at least.
I think stamina presents a fun challenge when it comes to combat or running away from something. But why do we need it for mining or harvesting? It doesn't present any kind of challenge. It just makes the game tedious. If they want to penalize mining, why not make my hunger and thirst decrease faster if I spend all day mining? This way there's still a trade-off, but without adding to the tedium.
I agree with this. I don't mind using stamina on things like mining, but I agree the fun aspect of having stamina at all is the threat of running out of stamina during combat. I wouldn't do away with stamina completely.