Geriatrics running the country don’t have to worry about personally experiencing any of the negative long term consequences of their actions.

… I do? They’re like the most basic manifestation of mastery over a particular section meaningfully impacting my experience. Not only does getting good at a run back let me focus on learning the boss more, but it also increases my general mobility throughout the map as a whole and drastically improves how cool it feels to replay the game and just blow through previously challenging sections.

I personally have 100% completion and only fell below half my available shards a couple of times. I probably still have most of my shard consumables to restore them when you get low if I had to guess. I used the fire tool a fair bit late game, and the boomerang early game for a couple of fights, but presumably since I was using a crest with only one tool slot I consumed shards slower than the average joe.