I feel it's less of an issue if you go in with your FC, as I did yesterday, because you stick together better and don't all have to converge at one spot to get stuff done. We combined with a few groups here and there, but it wasn't a constant zerg-fest.

I really enjoy the content, although I do agree that the mission objectives should carry more weight than 40 Esos. Maybe if you got some spoils for doing them, or were still able to complete the other objectives after doing the three for additional rewards, people would be more interested in the varied goals. As it is now, if you're in a DF group and want to gather, you'll probably be frowned upon for not helping fight NMs.