For example, healing surges could be more useful as a player resource if it did more than just recharge hit points. As written, players only needed to decide how many to burn before the next rest based on their character's health (i.e. remaining hit points). In my experience, it was rare for any of my players to actually run out of healing surges before their next long rest. They would typically often run out of daily powers first, which forced them to look for that long rest opportunity instead, and consequently recharge their surges in the process.
Now imagine if they had the option to spend some of those surges to recharge one of their powers. Or if surges were required to use your strongest abilities. Players will need to make more tactical decisions regarding how they manage their resource as a group. Do they save their last surges to stay in the fight? Or expend them on a powerful attack which could be the difference between victory and defeat?