The rule is written to remove adjudication of the "wouldn't"Yes so? The players get their short rest unless they are in an area were they wouldn’t be able to.
A Short Rest is a 1-hour period of downtime, during which a creature does nothing more strenuous than eating, drinking, reading, dozing,
and standing watch.
BENEFITS OF THE REST
To start a Short Rest, you must have at least 1 Hit Point. When you finish the rest, you gain the following benefits:
Spend Hit Dice. You can spend one or more of your Hit Dice to regain Hit Points. For each Hit
Die you spend in this way, roll the die, and add your Constitution modifier to it. You regain Hit
Points equal to the total (minimum of 1 Hit Point). You can decide to spend an additional Hit Die after each roll.
Special Feature. Some features are recharged by a Short Rest. If you have such a feature, it recharges in the way specified in its description.
INTERRUPTING THE REST
A Short Rest is stopped by the following interruptions:
• Rolling Initiative
• Casting a spell other than a cantrip
• Taking any damage
An interrupted Short Rest confers no benefits, and it must be started over to confer any.
and standing watch.
BENEFITS OF THE REST
To start a Short Rest, you must have at least 1 Hit Point. When you finish the rest, you gain the following benefits:
Spend Hit Dice. You can spend one or more of your Hit Dice to regain Hit Points. For each Hit
Die you spend in this way, roll the die, and add your Constitution modifier to it. You regain Hit
Points equal to the total (minimum of 1 Hit Point). You can decide to spend an additional Hit Die after each roll.
Special Feature. Some features are recharged by a Short Rest. If you have such a feature, it recharges in the way specified in its description.
INTERRUPTING THE REST
A Short Rest is stopped by the following interruptions:
• Rolling Initiative
• Casting a spell other than a cantrip
• Taking any damage
An interrupted Short Rest confers no benefits, and it must be started over to confer any.
A Long Rest is a period of extended downtime—at least 8 hours long—available to any creature. During a Long Rest, you sleep for at least 6 hours and perform no more than 2 hours of light activity, such as reading, talking, eating, or standing watch.
During the sleep, you have the Unconscious condition.
BENEFITS OF THE REST
To start a Long Rest, you must have at least 1 Hit Point. When you finish the rest, you gain the following benefits:
Regain All HP. You regain all lost Hit Points.
Regain All HD. You regain all spent Hit Dice.
HP Max Restored. If your Hit Point Maximum was reduced, it returns to normal.
Ability Scores Restored. If any of your Ability Scores were reduced, they return to normal.
Exhaustion Reduced. If you have the Exhaustion condition, your level of exhaustion decreases by 1.
Special Feature. Some features are recharged by a Long Rest. If you have such a feature, it recharges in the way specified in its description.
After you finish a Long Rest, you must wait at least 16 hours before starting another one.
During the sleep, you have the Unconscious condition.
BENEFITS OF THE REST
To start a Long Rest, you must have at least 1 Hit Point. When you finish the rest, you gain the following benefits:
Regain All HP. You regain all lost Hit Points.
Regain All HD. You regain all spent Hit Dice.
HP Max Restored. If your Hit Point Maximum was reduced, it returns to normal.
Ability Scores Restored. If any of your Ability Scores were reduced, they return to normal.
Exhaustion Reduced. If you have the Exhaustion condition, your level of exhaustion decreases by 1.
Special Feature. Some features are recharged by a Long Rest. If you have such a feature, it recharges in the way specified in its description.
After you finish a Long Rest, you must wait at least 16 hours before starting another one.
Without invoking fiat what is "an area were they wouldn’t be able to." simply go back to "so with that done, we take a long/short rest"? Do you have a lot of adventures set in a volcano actively the process of erupting?
Wow... It's a good thing d&d is a single player exercise in story writing where players get to decide that for themselves?.. oh wait.... it's not up to a player to decideCurrent rule don’t even mention the needs of hands to climb or swim.
I guess that that designers consider the players smart enough to figure out the use of hands by themselves.