In all fairness the "constant back and forth" never really goes away. I literally just had to detour back to Kugane from Yanxia, for, like, half a quest, just a few minutes, to go and pick up a package from Tataru, to take back to Yanxia. Ffs, we're building up for a war, and you want to send your star player on a gopher errand.

So, personally, I don't really understand how folks want to praise expansion stories while deriding ARR, when the causes for a lot of the complaints are still present throughout.

Don't get me wrong. From a game development perspective, I get it. The quests always serve one purpose or another. I don't terribly mind them either way. I just think players need to recognize that's simply what MMO stories do. They want to keep you busy. The more busy work you have to do, the longer you stay subbed.