DF pain disabling fighters all the time is not how reality works, especially if adrenaline is implemented properly. I talked to a veteran of the Afghan war who was riding in an armoured vehicle that was hit by a bomb. The blast and shrapnel broke several vertebrae, fortunately missing the spinal cord, but he was still able to crawl to safety. Only once he was rescued did he pass out from the shock.
That woman on Reddit who was attacked by a bear experienced extreme pain, but nowhere did she say that she passed out in the middle of the fight. She only came close to passing out once she was safely inside the rescue helicopter.
See this video here for historical examples:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iF_K-P0AwfIAnd read this here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_BenavidezThis case is especially interesting, since he was briefly knocked out by a grenade, but then proceeded to come to and continue fighting for some time. He sustained a broken jaw, among 37 assorted bullet, bayonet, and shrapnel wounds, but still was the last man on the helicopter out and only then fainted from his injuries.
I can promise you that most fights are not settled by somebody passing out from a chipped bone. The solution is not to remove pain but instead to add adrenaline that works properly, staying for the duration of the fight and then ebbing away after it is over, leaving the fighter to suffer the pain of his injuries. "Collapsing from over-exertion" also needs to happen less often, and fighters should just not hit as hard as they tire; now it happens several times during some fights, with the fighter then getting up again, fighting some more, and collapsing again. It is daft.
Regarding giant cave spider silk, it must be followed through to its logical conclusion, however unbalancing that might be. Just making it far less abundant and more dangerous to get would balance it out; those traders should not get it so easily.