Quote Originally Posted by Cheezeman3000 View Post
You're right it's not 5x, the math is pretty complex if you want to get technical. But my point is, it feels a lot worse seeing that !! pop up so often when you know it could be gone had you just not done the quest. And that feeling of permanent anti-progression should not be present in this game, and I still don't believe was intentional.
Feels does not mean it's actually harder, you are correct in that.

As I said, it appears consideration is taken to provide a similar statistical experience for the fish regardless of quest status.