I absolutely adore it. It's so much fun searching for the currents, especially when you reach the spot and go "uh...where is i - *looks up* oh. It's 500 feet above me." And then you have to figure out how to get up to it. It's annoying sometimes, but then you make it and you're proud of yourself.
The quest part is annoying, but there's already lists of all the quests you need to do, so that undoes the annoying-ness.
We've been entering the zone, immediately exploring the map and getting all the currents, then doing the aether current quests, then doing the side quests after gaining the ability to fly. It makes it a crapton less obnoxious to fetch this, kill that, etc.