the time required to receive the warmth buff is simply too long in the current version of DayZ. even just the minimum buff with the standard fresh spawn loadout takes insanely long for the tiny duration it actually lasts once you leave the fire. when you have very high insulation clothing, it's so long to get full buff that it's very dull and boring - i need to alt tab and look at my browser so i'm not just staring blankly at my inventory screen for the several minutes it takes to get the buff.

clothes drying is also taking too long IMO - it's not as insane as the buff buildup time, but still just so slow, especially for shoes, packs and vests. i think it's important to keep in mind that the player could potentially go through all the trouble and time to dry off and get rained on 30 seconds or a few minutes later and everything is drenched in seconds. since player can't reliable 'plan' for this, i don't think it makes sense for it to take so long to dry.

lastly, i feel like if devs really want to stick to their guns on this (bad idea IMO obviously but...) then one way to balance it some would be to make fires made with logs and sticks build the buff and dry clothes MUCH faster than just sticks - i have not timed it with a stopwatch but it feels like there is little to no difference currently between how effective logs and sticks fires are vs sticks only fires, other than the overall time the fire lasts is noticeably longer with logs. this would also make a clear distinction for the player between "scorching" fires and "blistering" fires which currently seems meaningless.