@Bran-the-Ent you are right. There are too many different buttons now. It is counter intuitive and breaks the flow of playing the game. On top of that you get the pause manipulating items and the screen side inventory menu blocking the game. It commandeers gameplay and sinks all the fun out of sailing.
It is great to add new items such as ammo, food, cargo, etc. Fishing, cooking, and other things talked about will bring more to the game and add to the fun to be had by all. However, it means using the new inventory system that would need to be used more and more as that kind of content added. More pausing and breaking you out of playing the game.
A screen wide inventory menu is not necessary and hurts the game. There is no need to see what is going in to your inventory in a split container screen as you are collecting it. A radial menu that pops up quickly over the container or one small box, similar to the ones in the new inventory menu, pops up just to the side of the container if they still want to stay that route. The radial menu or small box would not cover the whole screen. Same way in reverse to deposit what you collect on your ship or the upcoming row boat. It would allow you to see everything around you like you could before when collecting from barrels. No greying out and pausing like the new menu does now.
If the main item in a barrel is bananas, have a quick take option to take that item like before. Have a second option to open up the barrel and grab the other things in it if you want to. That would be when the radial button pops up or an inventory box. Then you could still grab things you need on the fly that you spot around you. You grab what you need in a fight, rather it be with skeletons or other players, and keep moving along like we use to be able to do. When just exploring, gathering, or after a fight you have that second option to open the container up all the way to collect what else is in there.
Use as few button presses as possible. Keep the buttons flowing smoothly like the same button opens and closes a container for example. Button options stay consistent according to the same type of thing you are interacting with. Taking damage does not stop you from collecting items or when swimming around floating barrels like the menu closes continuously on now. Of course, what they said they are going to do, containers say empty when they are.