I think the voice acting isn't something that should be a priority. It can be off putting but it's not the worst thing possible. Voice acting is mediocre at worst. Voice Acting is a lot of work and I just don't think it's worth the effort or redo it for content that is so old.

As far as reducing the amount of teleporting by cutting out fetch quests, I agree 100%. I myself started playing sometime near the end of last year and I can't even begin to imagine what going through ARR before the fat trim was like. Having to teleport to X just to talk to someone then get an item and take that item to Y location definitely is obnoxious. Having people I know and look up to try out the game and end up calling it "Fetch Quest Fantasy" is disheartening but they're not wrong. Everytime I roll the Moogle King boss battle on DF and I see the message that it's a new player's first time I feel so bad because they have such an tiring journey ahead of them before Heavensward.