I totally understand… Since I’m more of a casual gamer and not a Souls or ARPG expert, the same thing happened to me. Right after the EA launch, I even believed the version was bugged in a way that food ingredients didn’t respawn once you had gathered them - unless you had reached Sacra or passed Warrick. Only the chests would respawn (see Resources not respawning before Warrick is defeated).
After 4 or 5 failed attempts to beat Warrick, my food was gone - but the damn mushrooms just wouldn’t respawn. Not during the same game session, not after restarting the game, not even the next day.
I ended up grinding gear from chests for hours and selling it just to buy food from Fillmore! It got ridiculous - I was one step away from quitting the game… but I finally managed to beat Warrick.
Since then, many things have changed: respawn rates were increased, enemies were nerfed, I got better 
- but it’s still not an easy game, especially in the beginning. This is where the art of game balancing comes in. You can’t please everyone. NRFTW is not a game for the masses. If you water things down too much, the game will start to lose its identity and uniqueness.