Isn't this topic moot by now? Even Dungeons and Dragons decided that it's pointless to make "healing" a natural thing, so you get all hit points back from a "long rest." I know I strayed from the HP-as-Meat narrative a while back, and I'm sure lots of other games have done the same.
The way that D&D handles the topic is a mess. There
is no consistent answer for how to describe HP loss in such a way where you are equally like to
either die from your wounds in the next six seconds
or stabilize and be fine and show no signs of injury after you take a nap.
D&D has written itself into a corner. It doesn't
have an answer. It tries to work a middle path and give options for the DM to interpret either way, but it was too committed to neutrality really support either solution. We deserve a real answer, and their failure to provide one is the major reason I haven't purchased any supplements for this edition. I can only hope that they come to their senses in time for 6E.
By the way, I'd spend a noble's ransom on a potion that would protect me from "future" damage, even if there were no immediately observable effect...
If that was actually true, then you would have already done so. There are plenty of people on the internet who will offer you amazing health benefits with absolutely no evidence that it does anything, and they rarely ask more than a few hundreds or thousands of dollars. As an American (based on your location), I'm guessing that you probably save your money for things that have an observable effect, such as surgery and/or pharmaceuticals; you probably
don't have a huge collection of magnetic wristbands and pyramid hats.
The rules of logic don't change just because you add magic to the world. Unless you have some sort of observable effect that you can directly attribute to the magic, there's no way to distinguish a healing potion from snake oil.
