The addition of the wooden backpack was absolutely necessary to beat hard mode (I think that update came out when I took a hiatus), but I still beat it with Griddle through sheer industry, haha. So thank you for addressing that longstanding issue I had, bringing parity to both modes =)
From a UX standpoint though, the wooden backpack and leather backpack serve the same function, but the latter grants access to a boots slot and the flask. Considering that these are both not really "backpack" functions, what if the wooden backpack is the default backpack for both modes, and the leathercrafting slots (flask and boots) is separate to the backpack? In other words, what if the tanning rack is specifically for the flask and boots, whereas the backpack is acquired from Bits and Bobs? This way, the same backpack exists in both modes.
Also, a couple of bugs: if we convert a vegan game to standard mode, and blueprints for alchemist's pouch/boots were previously found in vegan mode prior to the bugfixes, they show as unlocked in the lorestone, but actually remain inaccessible (blueprint cannot be found again, and they cannot be made).
Thank you again, and thank you for being so active!