Here’s the thing that had me scratching my head after the change to butter — So NPCs sell buttermilk, cheese, and sour cream, but they somehow just forgot how to make the most staple of dairy products — butter — and we’re now forced to forage in the wild for it? From a continuity (or logical) standpoint that just blows my mind.
As for chocolate, why not just have cocoa beans as a gathering drop from logging much like walnuts are now and then a recipe to make chocolate using cocoa beans + buttermilk or something? Sure this just creates an extra step in the process, but it makes more sense than finding a staple cooking ingredient from within smelly bandit or ogre bags.
I dunno… the change just seemed so silly and nonsensical to me.