We see them have backpacks or bags but rarely do we see what’s inside. They definitely don’t have clothes since they don’t change into anything. Maybe food,water,ammo but they should have more. Or sometimes there packs are too light like they don’t have anything
I don’t think I’ve seen any hard apocalypse content in the same way there is hard science fiction. Even in most zombie content the zombies are secondary to the human antagonists.
I think Cormac McCarthy’s The Road may fit the bill a little bit as far as “hard post-apocalyptic”. I can’t say for sure, as I didn’t finish the book. I found it to be too depressing at the time. Which, duh, but it goes to show that the author is uninterested in the power fantasy that often accompanies the genre.
I think it depends on the series. Like the walking dead the zombies were a big the art until they learned how to deal with them. Then they became fodder and were only a the art when they had a huge wave of them.