Yeah, the Ixal quests that require gathering only give a tiny amount of xp and that's just for the actual gathering (cus I think all the nodes and stuff you gather are like level 10 or something).
This was mainly for diversity of lvling. Also, I do kinda like the model of doing the beast tribes anyways. Just a quick little something you can do everyday (like Trials Roulette). But so far, I've literally just been gathering level appropriate nodes. It's not bad xp or anything but as I said, it's just a preference thing =)
But yeah, I am aware that this is very unlikely but I just wanted to kinda put it out there and see what everyone said.

Also, people have mentioned collectibles. How does this work? Is it the same as fisher where you turn on the collectible thingy, arrive at the right spot and hope for the best?