Yeah, I feel discussing saves is a bit futile. It’s simply not something COG wants to be part of their design.
It’s like genderlocking; I, you, and my grandma can argue how it’d make the game better all day long, but at the end of the day it’s not something COG wants in their games. And that’s that.
Maybe I’m overly optimistic, but if you understand how to create and set variables, it’s not so hard to implement a Tin Star-style checkpoint system once you’ve finalized your variables. If you own it, Cakes and Ale is great example of this technique in action.
If you’ve got a good grasp on CS, you can rig up a fancier save system using string variables and concatenation. Mommy, We Created a Plot Hole is the only example of this technique I’ve seen in the wild. Go check it out — it’s very cool.