Personally, I disagree with people who say that it should remain completely mindless. My problem with the absolutely mindless, one-button click method is that it's dead boring. I guess it works great for people who don't actually fish that much in game, but in 1.0 (where we could choose to start as any class, gatherer or crafter included) I started as a fisher. It's what I did throughout all of 1.0 to the detriment of everything else, to the point where it took me a year and a half just to get my first combat class to 50. That's playing every single day as well.

I got 50 long before they got rid of Grades 6 to 10 spots, I got my luminary rod in a fairly short amount of time (I was the first fisher I knew who had it in server, save for one person who admitted to being a bot so it doesn't count), and now that we're in 2.0, I've caught at least one of every fish and have just under 30,000 fish caught according to my fish guide.

I fish a lot.

For people who do it as a pastime, who actually do exactly what Yoshi expects of you and fishes in between doing "real game" stuff, sure, a mindless route is fine. For us fishers from 1.0 who actually want some interactivity when we're playing a videogame, it's not enough. If I wanted to "converse with nature," I'd go outside. As it is, I don't need something in game to kick back and relax with; the game is already my way of kicking back and relaxing. I don't want to do "real game" stuff, I want to fish. Right now, how mindless the system is actually stops me from it. I don't fish in between doing things, I do "real game" stuff in between fishing. I will purposely refuse doing dungeons of any sort if I have fish to catch.

Also, before anyone tells me I'm playing the wrong game, keep in mind this is an RPG, and in 1.xx it was perfectly valid to play as you want. If you expect me to fight only, I suggest you're playing the wrong game and might want to try out one of the Dynasty Warrior titles. Since this is an RPG, I get to choose what role I want to play, and I choose to fish.