I hear you 100% on that DWC drinking a ton! That's why I switched over to coco, I've been getting pretty solid yield using about 40% of the water I was using when running DWC.
One thing I do notice though, and maybe it depends no how large of a reservoir you rock vs TDS of the nutrients to keep pH in check, but I find when I mix <5 gallons of RO/Silica/
CalMag/Base nutrients to pH 5.8, I usually have to adjust the pH at least once more, if not twice more after the initial mixture is complete. For example: I mix up a batch on Monday afternoon to feed Monday night, pH to 5.8 and everything is peachy. Next morning I'll check the reservoir, and notice the pH may ride up to 6.0 or 6.1 pH, at which point I'll knock it back.
Sometimes I have to knock it back a third time, but that's usually if my TDS is <1.5 EC. I'm usually mixing in a 20 gallon tote during full flower and find that these pH swings are greatly reduced.
What I'm trying to say is even a "set-it-and-forget-it" approach could still use some hands on monitoring from time to time. The longest I've gone without monitoring the pH in my top feed system is 2 days and there were no issues. However I love being in the garden, so daily check ups are typically the best part(s) of my day.