MSQ

[Iscah]

in fact he hasn't appeared at all since where you can logically slot that side story into the canon if it was required.

Oh, absolutely on that front. We won't be calling on him at all for the time being, and it may strike people as odd if they haven't done it. But they won't explicitly say "we can't go talk to him because he's still sleeping off his encounter with Omega" and leave the player going "wait, what, when?"

At most you'd get a variable line making up some other excuse why he isn't available or we don't want to disturb him.

And I don't agree that it would have been more genuine coming from him. On the contrary, it seems far more significant that we convinced her to help us than for Midgardsormr to say that she should.

[BlitzAceRush]

Oh, absolutely on that front. We won't be calling on him at all for the time being, and it may strike people as odd if they haven't done it. But they won't explicitly say "we can't go talk to him because he's still sleeping off his encounter with Omega" and leave the player going "wait, what, when?"

At most you'd get a variable line making up some other excuse why he isn't available or we don't want to disturb him.

And I don't agree that it would have been more genuine coming from him. On the contrary, it seems far more significant that we convinced her to help us than for Midgardsormr to say that she should.

That's why I feel they should stop trying to tow the line, they tried it with the Crystal towers till it just didn't make sense anymore and then they're doing it lightly here, it'll also come into play if they ever wanted to bring Ryne back given they even give the WoL a dialogue line that gives Gaia an entry point for the duo.
Personally I'd be fine with them just making things mandatory as and when the wish, but I know a lot of people wouldn't like them adding to the MSQ, so to me the best compromise they could make is give plenty of forewarning that X side story is about to become relevant for the MSQ and you should do it by X patch but keep it optional, from that patch onwards everything will just act like that side story has been completed, obviously that'll confuse some people, but it'll be on them as they had plenty for warning.
There's just becoming too much MSQ relevant information locked out of the MSQ.

I do agree that it meant a lot coming from us, perhaps it was more fitting, but still, given who they are to one another, if someone doesn't know about Omega, they'd likely of expected him to say something.

[Iscah]

That's why I feel they should stop trying to tow the line, they tried it with the Crystal towers till it just didn't make sense anymore and then they're doing it lightly here, it'll also come into play if they ever wanted to bring Ryne back given they even give the WoL a dialogue line that gives Gaia an entry point for the duo.

If they ever brought Ryne back into the MSQ, I would expect her to come alone with a line that "Gaia is busy at the moment but she sends her regards".

I think the simplest way to sum up the writers' approach to side plots is that they're happy for things to seem a little bit off if you haven't done the relevant side stories (Midgardsormr oddly absent, ShB backstory timeline not quite making sense if CT isn't done yet) but they won't say you've actually done something that you haven't.