What is the general opinion of the main story questlines?

[Highelfwarlock]

I legit agree on ALOT of your points, every now and then I stop and watch and say "hey this is cool final fantasy stuff" but its sandwiched in between a ton of lore in the past you never see happening and I don't care about and longed winded chain quests about helping a farming brake rocks or some shit? if they just "cut the fat" so to speak, as well as adding more actual real quests and maybe fine tune some story points it will be way better! I mostly just want it to be a bit more comprehensive, less filler, at the very leave heavily shrink down or disconnect the post story MSQ bits so you can jump into the next part of the game faster. also just more likeable characters in general because most of the characters are super basic and could use more flavor lol

[Jeeqbit]

"hey this is cool final fantasy stuff" but its sandwiched in between a ton of lore in the past you never see happening

The past is a big deal in Final Fantasy games and provides context.

I don't care about and longed winded chain quests about helping a farming brake rocks

If you mean the titan quests in ARR, those were always a drag and the ARR MSQ was built with filler unlike the expansions. They changed their philosophy for the expansions and eventually they did go back to ARR and remove a lot of the filler or allow you to fly so you can get places faster, but they left the titan quests that involve you breaking rocks for some reason.

That reason became more clear later on because we eventually meet the Company of Heroes again in a sidequest, so they can't entirely remove it now.

Generally if you feel a certain way, such as being frustrated at being misled to do some pointless quests, or having to walk somewhere, SE wants your character to feel that way in the story.

at the very leave heavily shrink down or disconnect the post story MSQ bits so you can jump into the next part of the game faster.

The post-MSQ stories are very good and sort of an expansion in their own right though. Even the post-MSQ of ARR is extremely good with a plot that I really enjoyed at the time. It was a bit tedious traveling everywhere for it, but you can fly now so it's much less tedious than it was.

also just more likeable characters in general because most of the characters are super basic and could use more flavor lol

They did notice that in ARR so they did something in the ARR patches to change that. I... won't say what, in case you didn't do it, but it results in them being different and less samey.

They do also explore some of their characters in certain expansions, or in some cases sidequests such as raid stories or job/role quests.

But overall, SE takes their time with idle chatter like humans in real life do and that's just how they do it. They aren't rushing to tell the story in an extremely efficient way like some games might.