Yeah, the characters that tell you not to go north, along with the various dangerous wildlife out that way, were kinda just put in to be annoying.
But the hostage situation was so you could ask where the guy who stole your McGuffin (and shot you in the head) went. Since they were the hired thugs from the beginning and all.
In addition, things that happen further along in the game during Hardcore mode include recruited people dying and ammo weighing you down.
And I agree, the freezing is annoying.
PS: Soda (and booze) actually do make you thirsty. As for the plus and minus signs, it (like the other Hardcore gauges) are basically re-worked versions of radiation.
Personally, I love the game, despite sometimes wanting to beat it to a bloody pulp. Largely because I took Bloody Mess, and can make people explode in twelve hundred directions at once.
Maybe it's just because of my giant army of powerful robots. Or because I keep playing after a single incident. On an unrelated note, it took me a solid minute to get the Chzo games functional, due to the passage of time. Those games are awesome.