Island Sanctuary feels intentionally slow and inefficient.

[Absurdity]

My only issue is that it feels pointless to make any monuments or whatever they are. While those are cool they don’t really add anything important to the island or change anything.

They absolutely do something. But as always with this game it is unreasonably vague about what they do.
Landmarks increase your maximum Groove. Groove is a buff in your workshop menu that gets higher the more things you sell consecutively in your workshop and it increases how much Seafarer's Cowrie you gain from it, 1 point of Groove = 1% more currency gained from sales.

[RoroCookies]

They absolutely do something. But as always with this game it doesn't actually tell you.
Landmarks increase your maximum Groove. Groove is a buff in your workshop menu that gets higher the more things you sell consecutively in your workshop and it increases how much Seafarer's Cowrie you gain from it, 1 point of Groove = 1% more currency gained from sales.

I take back what I said then. Still wish there’s was more than just being there. Also makes me wonder how many available plots we have on our island currently.

[Knot_D]

It feels slow and inefficient sure, but what am I even working towards on island sanctuary? It feels like all the island is is just a piece of farmland with nothing else on it. Am I missing something?

Yes you're missing this

[kaynide]

“Island Sanctuary feels intentionally slow and inefficient”.

Correct. Working as intended.

[hagare]

You don't give me more to do by funelling and stretching what could be done in a day, over weeks or months by timegating my progress. My sub keeps ticking away while i'm waiting for weekly resets. I'd much rather do it all and then move on to another game. Like with every other game. Waiting is not content.

so play other games while you wait?

[GoatOfWar]

so play other games while you wait?

Surely you see the problem here?

[Sotaris]

It's meant to be casual content so it's probably intended to be slow and not rushed.

That being said, I'm rank 4 and can't progress right now? Do I need to Hit rank 5 from doing random stuff before I can accept another quest?

[amihavingfunyet]

It's meant to be casual content so it's probably intended to be slow and rushed.

That being said, I'm rank 4 and can't progress right now? Do I need to Hit rank 5 from doing random stuff before I can accept another quest?

Yea, at rank 5 you'll get new tools for the mammets to expand. That's where the slog kinda starts and you'll either have to wait for timers (workshops, cropland, pastures) for daily XP drops or grind out nodes.

[Deveryn]

Surely you see the problem here?

There's a problem playing the rest of Final Fantasy XIV? That's exactly what this is designed to let us do.

[Jojoya]

This. Mobile games make you wait 12 hours or more for anything to do on purpose to get you to pay money, they aren't designed to provide a great gameplay experience but to wring every last penny out of you if possible.

I already consider this design obnoxious at best for a game on your phone that doesn't cost you anything if you're stubborn enough. Adding it to a game with a monthly subscription certainly doesn't magically make it not terrible.

If you consider waiting around to be content because "mobile games do it and they make a lot of money" then I must seriously wonder if we slipped into the clown universe at some point.

You know what other game has a bunch of this content design? You know, that game in the same genre everyone likes to complain about?

Your problem is that you're approaching Island Sanctuary as if it's the only content in the game and is supposed to be occupying all of your time.

It's not. It's just another ride in the MMO theme park that you can choose to do.

You don't need to be waiting around doing nothing while waiting on the workshop, pastures, etc. Play the rest of the game as you have done in the past. Use this to fill in the spare moments you have between doing that other content instead of making the island your entire day.

Want to know what makes this very different from that other game you're referring to? It's completely optional. You don't have to do it. You don't miss out on power progression by skipping it. A raid static isn't going to drop you from the group because you decide you're not going to do Island Sanctuary.

This seems to be a good time to repeat something I have a habit of saying in a lot of forum discussions:

Be a smart consumer. Don't engage with content you do not enjoy. Virtual rewards are not worth wasting your time on content that annoys you instead of entertains you.