I think it's nice for gathering to have a mini game of its own. It makes it a little bit different than gathering in other games.
HOWEVER! I do think it needs a lot of work... Someone above made a suggestion about making different types of nodes that would yield different materials (I really like that idea). Also, if nodes last for such a long time, they should definitely give you more materials from them.

As a more immediate solution, I'd like the gathering mini game to make a little more sense... sometimes I gather for logs at the ideal spot for them, and all I get is branches. That's just absurd lol.