If they wanted to add a water shortage problem for early game, they could be part of the difficulty settings, reducing food and water drops from loot. Then, players can adjust this to their preferences.
Removing glass jars doesn't make the early game harder, it makes a portion of the game more annoying. Run to a ditch or pool, drink dirty water. Deal with diarrhea. Get helmet filter. Still no problems with water to drink, unless the game spawns you in the middle of the desert with no open water for miles.
You know what the biggest need for water is? Not drinking. Glue production. Glue, to make duct tape, to make repair kits and all kinds of equipment. You need lots of glue.
If the devs really wanted to do something about balancing water, instead of removing jars, dirty water jars should be an additional ingredient in making concrete. It's logical, reasonable, and uses up a lot more of an abundant resource. Now, I'd say 1 jar per 10 concrete sounds like a starting point, so you don't have to become a sand baron just to cover all the sand needed for jars plus concrete.
