To be honest I really don't mind this feature at all. I've been playing for about 2 or 3 hours without having any issues. Also food and drinks are easy to come by. The only issue I have with how it is at the moment is the vagueness of the messages.

http://dayzdb.com/guide/1-hunger-and-thirst

This is a guide explaining every status and how to resolve them. I just find it vague that it says "I feel tired" and that means you're either hungry or thirsty(There is no resting mechanic in the game as far as I know). Also it's a bit odd that it can say "I feel thirsty" when you're in the stage 1 (and not at all in the danger zone yet) But then when you get in the danger zone and get dehydrated you might still get the same message. This (in my opinion) is a bit misleading because you can think "Ooh i'm still safe" yet allready be in the danger zone.

All in all I do really like the feature itself and it's quite easy to get food and drinks anyway so it's not really a problem. I would advise to either give a explanation in the game itself explaining all the states and how to resolve them. Or making the messages a lot more clear so you actualy know what's going on. And not let different states have the same message.

Also lastly since the last update I did notice when I go into my inventory while thirsty it will show up "thirsty" in either orange or red letters so that does help.