I’m always thrown that the concept of managing inventory is always treated as such a huge burden. Most of the time its just a list you update with quantity and weight. It always feels like such a low lift thing for everyone to hate so much. Like seriously, even if you just want people to track how many arrows they fire some will get grouchy.

Well you are on the money, nobody wants to manage inventory.

The thing is, while these sorts of items may be common among adventurers, adventurers aren’t common in the world. Personal backstory not withstanding, adventurers are individuals that have risen above the common rank for one reason or another. I’d say having an arcane focus would qualify for that. I vaguely recall one handbook or another even saying somewhere that a commoner’s stats usually sit around 8 or something, so even a level 1 adventurer is a cut above.

I played an arcane trickster without a focus, once, it was a fun experience, especially since it was in a world where magic was frowned upon. So my character was constantly looking for some weird components, trying to make it look like he had a perfectly sane reason for that and it was not at all about magic, it gave us great roleplaying moments. But then again, this was a rogue, with a bit of magic : he could manage without spells. Playing a wizard at level 1 is already punishing enough without going through such ordeal. :) i would totally have the wizard of the group buy a new component pouch from time to time, though, just to remember them it’s not a magically infinite source.