Alright.
Let's be honest.
There were three types of quests in ffxi:
1. The frustrating just not worth it quests. (I'm looking at you "This smooth stone is not the right weight.") If you did the quest at all it was a learning experience and you vowed to avoid it in the future.
2. The reward might be worth it quests. Usually these were the ones for gil, or for basic items. (most popular being: Tiger fangs for gil, ones that let you spam fame, and every so often there was a basic item worth the quest)
3. The reward was mandatory quests. I don't even have to give examples of these, but I will anyway: the subjob quests, advanced job quests, rse, etc. Please note that unlike the type 2 quests the type 3 quests changed the way you played the game.
Keep in mind that from ffxi to ffxiv quests are to sidequests as missions are to quests.
So here are 5 ideas to help fix the sidequests which are not very playable in their current capacity.
1. Give back the xp/sp. The xp of killing mobs while doing random quests should be at least equivalent to the xp of a mob killed while grinding. A game should never ask a player to sacrifice xp for plot. Especially when the item rewards to not equal such sacrifice, which leads to suggestion 2.
2. Upgrade the rewards. In all realism this won't happen until after the battle system and job system readjustments, but these would be suitable items that would more than make a quest worthwhile before the type 3 quests were available:
1. A one shot anima refresh item (unique)
2. A one shot repair item (unique)
3. A one shot haste item (unique)
4. Guild Marks
5. A one shot "facilities" item (unique) (would give woodyard or equiv type use)
6. An xp/sp boost item (reusable or oneshot) (unique)
7. Anything that made the PC themself more customizable (a chance to recolor an item they have)
3. The addition of a mog house type space would create the opportunity to create furniture and such which would be a fun side pursuit.
4. The fame system has been done (although it is an idea) and so has titles.
5. A completionist log. Something that said you have completed 6 out of 1800 logs. With extras for getting so far along such as Yoshi P's armor artwork, or soundtrack access. This would have people questing just for the extras.
Anyway. I believe the type three quests are coming and as long as they have a decent storyline everything will be on track. So Yoshi-P keep cracking on the battle system so we can get our awesome quests soon.