I don't know if this has been suggested yet or not. I haven't seen it anywhere.
Remember, how in summer, bushes etc. that you moved don't wither if you haven't picked from them yet, since you last fertilzed them?
How would you feel about Brightshades only being able to infect Berry Bushes & Grass tufts that aren't "pristine" anymore? Which basically means they are not used for their functional use but purely as decoration and thus I would argue, add no practical benefit to the players survival that would justify being infected by a hardmode enemy?
It wouldn't be a perfect fix, as crops and saplings would be left out, but it would be a start
I am not trying to be dramatic, but the facts are, for me, the way I enjoy playing the game is building large aesthetic bases, and with how Brightshades currently work I simply no longer enjoy playing the vanilla version of the game, as things like Berry Bushes, Grass Tufts, Sapplings etc. are just an integral part of how I build and decorate, and not having them available without having to deal with Brigthshades all the time simply doesn't work for me.
I tried everything like, just trying to decorate and build without them, turning off the rifts, not opening the rifts in the first place, weird "clusters of bushes to attract Brightshades to specific spots", Dragonfruit around lavapools. But tbh none of these work for me, I want to want to play the game, but I feel so discouraged that I just turn it off. To me it feels like being a painter and suddenly for no reason a few colors are no longer available to me to paint with.
Any opinions?