Recent changes have made it more important than ever to mind wetness and thus how water-resistant/proof and absorbant items are.

I like it...except for the fact that afaik the game did not give us more options to deal with it !
If you are rocking a plate carrier and a backpack other than the drybag under on-and-off heavy rain, either you accept that you weight as much as a small car, or you light a fire every 10 minutes to dry up hoping that the rain will stop (and it won't). Or worse, you log off.

I would suggest two ways to help with that:

1. Allow us to wring, even if only partially, more items (yes including the plate carrier and backpack)

And/Or

2. Add a poncho in the game on another new layer which would cover the body+backpack. It could be found or crafted (maybe with tarp or leather). Make it a 2x2 or 3x3 item so that it can reasonably be picked up while also requiring a trade-off with other items. To avoid it being used as an easy camouflage too early make it red/blue, with military camo ones in T3 or T4 locations.