I like sidequests the way they are. The combat portion I do not care about at all. As an astrologian it takes forever to kill stuff, and doing that by spamming a single button is far from being fun.

Sidequests are supposed to be related to lore and help players getting a "feel" for an area, in case they are interested in learning more. If combat is what you are looking for, nothing stops you from just killing enemies. There is plenty of them around in every region. Also there is an entire FATE system catered towards players who like "sidequesting" with a focus on combat. There is no need to adapt a portion of the game to combat as well, that is mostly there for those who like to learn more about the world.