The way they implemented flight was a rather elegant way of dealing with an issue WoW's devs complained about and used as an excuse to remove flight: people were getting flight and cheesing through content and obstacles and not seeing the whole zones as "intended". Instead flight is gated behind zone exploration and story quests, which follows the solution to the aforementioned problem. It's really not that bad if you put it into perspective.
This always happens when you meet a new faction. At least with Ishgard it's explained that most people don't want anything to do with you because you're an outsider.3. You left us off with quite an amazing story at the end of A Realm Reborn. I even watched the trailer for Heavensward because I was so excited for the new chapter. Imagine my disappointment when I find out that I have to run "errands" for my new host. Yes, it gets a lot better, but first impressions are the most important. Overall, it was a very poor "grand opening" for Heavensward.
Keep in mind the quests are supposed to be there for the sake of exposition. You're given a lot of context and an idea of what goes on in each zone. In this aspect HW's storytelling is an improvement over what we saw in ARR.4. Many people already have issues with having to do main scenerio quests to unlock content and progression. It wouldn't be an issue at all if the main scenerio didn't feel like fillers and running delivery errands between point a, b, or c.
For one, me killing Ravana after half the party got knocked off the platform was awesome.5. What happened to what made the Final Fantasy franchise so great? Where is the "HOLY CRAP, THAT WAS EPIC!" part of the game? Final Fantasy 11 did a much better job with the main scenerio in that regards.