Jars were removed about 8 months before A21 released. There was a lot of testing and experiencing of the consequences and subsequent development of the early water survival because of it. I don't know whether there were any consequences that caught them by surprise at the time but you can bet that by time the game released to the public, any and all consequences were fully considered.
The biggest complaint I see is immersion. Unfortunately, not everyone is affected the same way by immersion. When I first experienced the change it was shocking for sure. But I quickly grasped that empty jars weren't really gone, they were just abstracted like many aspects of the game and I made the adjustment. The devs had long made the adjustment in their own thinking since it was their plan for even longer. Many gamers have made the adjustment since the release. But there are still quite a few who can't get past it and it destroys their sense of immersion and it upsets them. That's understandable. But it makes the issue of whether there is an objectively bad consequence somewhat murky. The "bad" consequence of nuked immersion is just not a universal result for everyone. The same is true for the fun factor of the process of solving water needs. Some think it is much better than the before and others see it as tedious and boring and much worse.
So since there really is no consensus among gamers it really just comes down to what the devs, themselves, want and they've crafted something they like. They aren't negatively affected by the immersion factor and they are having fun with what they created and despite the polar views expressed heatedly here, on steam, on reddit, on discord, on x, etc. the change hasn't had any kind of negative impact on player numbers, reviews, or the game's popularity.
In fact, I'm willing to bet that we will see more development to the current water survival gameplay rather than any reverting back to the way it was-- especially in regards to empty jars.