5.5 needs Pact Magic to help the edition survive the nuclear homogenization going on with the other spellcasters. For people who don’t like Pact Magic… there’s an abundance of other arcane casters. Have fun with them.
Warlock is my most-played class. Unfortunately, most of the parties I’ve played with are really averse to short rests, for some reason. This doesn’t make me want warlocks to change to be more like regular casters—far from it—but it does make me wish that they could take notes from the most recent incarnations of Channel Divinity/Nature. I think it would be perfect if Pact Magic granted a handful of spell slots (more than they currently have, more than the number of uses granted by the Channels for their respective features) that are cast at highest level available and recharge on a long rest, but you also recharge one spell slot on a short rest. Two recharge per short rest starting at 11th level or something. IMO, this would strike a good middle line, still giving warlocks plenty of inclination to ride lots of short rests, but helps the warlock not be punished as a class when short rests just aren’t a thing. (I like this solution more than the common suggestion of “PB times/LR, meditate for 5 minutes and get all your spell slots back.)
Also, I prefer my warlocks with spell points rather than spell slots, but I’d be very surprised if WotC made that the default. But using spell points goes a long way to help warlocks stretch out how many spells they can cast a day and make certain lower-level spells—like Misty Step—not feel like a complete waste once you have access to spell slots of a level or more higher.