Sadly have to agree, they want to be told how to play their job, they want minions handed to them, they don't want to earn the ability to fly in zones even though that whole journey of earning makes it that much more rewarding to fly.

Aether current hunting was fun, it's a one and done concept and I don't understand why people have an issue with that. It's not like you have to upkeep it and the journey to finding them with the compass gives you time to get adjusted to the land. It's a clever way to make the ground relevant for as long as possible rather than making all the zones a /faceroll fly through from point a to point b.