These stalker quests in Endwalker are ruining the game for me

[Iscah]

Escort quests are different from what we got in Endwalker. Every gamer hates escort quests where you have to _defend_ who you are escorting, but that's not the case at all with the new system.

Aside of the "every gamer" comment already discussed, I just want to say that it is definitely possible to do defensive escort quests well, and I think enjoyment also hinges on whether you empathise with the character or not.

I have to mention the PS2 game ICO here, because that was basically an escort quest from start to finish and it remains one of the best emotional experiences I've ever had in a videogame.

I just hate how slow they are.
I don't mine escorting an NPC if they can actually keep up.

If you're on foot, they keep up. I never had a single problem with losing them except for a few times in field zones when I forgot someone was following and used a mount. They seem to freeze up at that point and stop following entirely.

It would be very helpful to have their current location marked on the map, though.

Sneaking behind someone means you must always be in the shadows.
What you did was just following, not stalk/sneaking.

Recall the one with Urianger; we ultimately failed because the way going up was clear of covers and he knew to look back.

We're following them without letting them see us. That's sneaking, even if we break our cover when they're not looking.

And getting spotted doesn't make it not sneaking. It just means you're bad at sneaking. (Canonically, given that it ends with Urianger spotting you at the designated endpoint. If he spots you earlier that's a gameplay fail and you have to restart.)