Expert Dungeon System

[ReynTime]

The thing is, even when the dungeons aren't constructed that way, players treat them like they are.

Side rooms in Sastasha. What are they?

Branching paths in Toto-Rak. When did anyone ever take the alternate route through the first zone? One tank in all the times I've played it.

Puzzles and treasure keys in Qarn. Lol no, we're just going to barrel straight past them and deliberately do the puzzle wrong because it's quicker to deal with the trap than to disarm it.

If I was a dungeon designer, I don't think I'd bother trying to make them interesting any more either.

That's because the dev team for whatever reason decided to scrap the bonus chest system from 1.1X. Those justified exploring, because there were bonus for clearing optional bosses/areas or opening certain chests.
IMO it was a big mistake. They tried to do optional paths/dead-ends during ARR despite removing the only thing motivating players to explore more than once per character if even that.

Moreover, as long as every dungeon is meant to be included in a daily roulette, there will always be a majority of players who just want to hurry and get it done. I don't care if the designers are so short-sighted now that they insist 4-8p dungeons can't be more than they are. If they implemented non-hallway sim dungeons designed not to be part of roulettes and give their own rewards, featuring the bonus chest mechanic again, I'm pretty sure it would work better than they expect.

Make bonus chest give mats for glamour recipe that can't be gotten otherwise, mount/minion chance, extra tomestones, or maybe even long-lasting role-wide leveling gear as a tiny extra if any of these dungeons could be spread across lower level tiers. It's not like there is a lack of things to use poetics for anyway.