There is nothing worse than trying to catch some reducible fish on a limited timer... without Patience, you run the risk of not getting a HQ fish to mooch. With Patience on, your Precision/Powerful hookset never works when it's supposed to, even with great gear. With Botany and Mining, you can hit ephemeral nodes all day and rake in all the crystals and shards you could ever desire, but good luck getting Water & Ice crystals through fishing.

I do think Botany and Mining have the same RNG BS. Impulsive Appraisal is supposed to have a 30% chance of producing Discerning Eye and I think after hundreds of attempts, I would say it's closer to about 7-10%. You also get your collectability up to where you are set to make 2 gathering attempts - with 95% chance of a successful gather, it always seems like you miss one of your two attempts. But that's why we play the game, right? :-/