I wanted to give my opinion on ways to improve and balance some seldom used items to make them more competitive in DST. I also suggested a few items/mechanics which might make sense.
Farm plot buffs:
These are just some ideas to improve the utility of certain crops in order to make farms slightly more competitive.
Crockpot:
• Eggplant + 0.5 x meat = Hearty Lasagna (medium healing food/improved meatballs)
• 2 x corn = High Fructose Corn Syrup (damages health, counts as both corn and a sweetener in the crockpot)
Magic tier 1:
• Pomegranate + Monster meat = Healing Molasses (high level healing). The idea behind this item is to make pomegranates a more competitive healing item, while also requiring monster meat so that it's in direct competition with meatballs, pierogi and bacon & egg.
Bearger:
• Mechanic idea: possibly make shavable every few days. Each time he is shaved he drops 10 x tufts. Shaving him again before the timer resets causes him to wake up, attack the player and then hibernate (resetting the timer).
• Insulated Pack: in the base game, this giant craft-able is directly inferior to each of its cheaper counterparts; a simple backpack can carry more, while the three gears that it takes to craft could be spent in better ways. Given the fact that this item is only available at the end of the first year makes it incredibly underwhelming. By the time you're able to craft one you could already have the far superior ice Chester (though this isn't as compelling in DST as there's only one). Additionally, the introduction of wax paper in the recent updates make it entirely redundant; carrying a single bundling wrap in a normal backpack is a far cheaper alternative.
To combat these issues I would suggest that it's inventory space should be increased to 8 or 10. Wax paper should replace gears as part of its recipe (This even fits thematically!). Additionally it should be given a unique function such as the ability to preserve 'dry goods' (I.e. jerky, butter, taffy, trail mix and pumpkin cookies) either indefinitely, or at the very least increase their spoilage time x4.
• Insulated carpet: either purely decorative, or offers tier two insulation during winter. Beefalo carpet could maybe offer tier 1 insulation as well.
• Hibernation chest: same size as scaled chest. Animals placed inside do not decay over time due to the fact that they're 'hibernating'.
Dragonfly:
• Mosaic flooring: requires marble and scales to craft. Visually similar spiral pattern to ruins turf, but with mosaic tiles. Either functionally the same as scaled flooring, or whatever is placed on it takes smoulder priority during summer.
Make certain items rechargeable
The Morning Star could be rechargeable with frazzled wires and/or electrical doodads. As a light source, it is outclassed by the cheaper lantern. The functionality of having a weapon that provides light becomes redundant at higher skill levels as a lantern can be dropped on the ground, or simply switched to when fighting at night with any superior weapon. The main pro of this weapon was charging volt goats, but the inclusion of electric darts make this less viable. An alternative/additional way to make the morning star more competitive would be to allow water balloons to affect the wetness of more mobs than just the dragonfly.
The Lazy Forager should be rechargeable with nightmare fuel. As it stands it cannot compete with other ruins gear in terms of how you should prioritise using thulecite.
If this post is too long, just look at my arguments for improving the insulated pack, the lazy forager and the morning star as I feel they are they most in need of love.