Solutions to the main scenario problem

[Vanitas]

Condensing all the needless fluff in ARR? Sure. Cutting down the story to a "F I N A L F A N T A S Y" game as a whole? Nah fam.

Also realistically I highly doubt they'd ever add any form of skip mechanic due simply to the fact that it would harm sales for skip pots and would most certainly be a poor business move.