Mine would be arbitrarily slowing down a character to maintain horror in a game. I get if there are reasons like age, injury, or location that could provide context, but don't turn my legs into molasses because you need to time the jump scare just right.
Hunger meters because no one ever seems to make them well. First you tend to have to eat like 12 eggs, 98 berries, and 6 slabs of meat to get back to full, but also you tend to end up getting so much food that its more of a chore than anything else.
as much as I love Pathologic, this one in particular grinds away at me. The main character should potentially be able to get by without eating for a few days at least, but starts to starve in less than one.
It could probably be excused by the whole supernatural plague thing, but it's still annoying.
Then again, Pathologic exists to make the player unhappy
hunger would make more sense as just a stamina mechanic in most games since the time frames to actually starve would be crazy. i think project zomboid (zombie survival rougelite RPG) had the only realistic one i ever saw since you can stay alive for years if you do well enough. you get hunger status and positive or negative weight gain. after long enough time, if your weight falls below a dangerous level it slowly chips away your maximum health until you starve. it can take an in game month or more depending on body weight.
I hate hunger mechanics because my brain confuses eating in game with eating irl and then I wind up trying to figure out why I'm so hungry afterward.
Fallout 76 did away with the negative effects of hunger and thirst a few updates ago. Now you just lose the benefits of being well-fed and quenched if you do get hungry.
Also, especially with certain mutations, the amount of food required to not go from 0-100% is very low.