#as someone who kinda hoards food in botw and cooks as often as I can

[science-lings]

(please not that i dont think this has been adressed in depth in the comic, but is more seen in fanfics and the fandom)

it's not just the whole deal with Wild not being able to easily hunt, but also the idea that the others are contantly annoyed that Wild wanders off, even though logically speaking most of that time would be used to either hunt or gather fruit and vegetebles.

Especially since as you said he has to feed the chain while on a very active lifestyle. So that is at least 27 meals every day (likely more cause of snacks). Combine that with the fact that they dont really know where they are going and you need either a big village or more likely a town or city to provide 9 men for multiple weeks. I personally dont see Sky's, Hyrule's or Wilds hyrule as having those (i also headcanon that in wilds hyrule travellers tend to hunt and forage to supply their diet while on the road). im not sure if Four, Legend and Wind would have big enough places, seeing as the first is still in the building Hyrule part and the latter two are both post apocolypse

I think it could be interesting to show Wild having trouble working in a group and cooking for so many other people. But it's generally depicted more like a bunch of heroes reigning in a feral cat and teaching this poor little caveman child the civilized ways of real people, you know?

Also, I just realized that they probably aren't hauling around several pounds of horse feed, so he might even be having to collect horse food, seeing as he's the only person we've seen feed her literally anything at all. I'm pretty sure horses need more than just apples and carrots and are much larger animals than Hylians, and she's doing just as much exercise as the Link's if not more since she's hauling all their shit everywhere. She needs to be fed too. Though I could accept the idea that Twilight or Time knows how to take care of it.

I'm going to go against the grain and say that Wild may actually have to shoot whatever he sees because he knows how important it is to be prepared. They never know when they're going to go to an area where food is scarce.

The rest of the Link's just packed lunches for themselves while they were on the road bc they knew they'd get back to civilization pretty fast. I mean, most of the time they're just carrying soup, milk, or potions around as all their food.

I think that even Hyrule, whose world is usually described as poisoned would have to go to towns to obtain safe enough food to eat.

So yeah, I think it's perfectly reasonable for Wild to hoard food and hunt whatever he deems it necessary. He has to make so much food daily in less-than-perfect conditions and they're in a situation where it's impossible to know where or when they're going.