Hey, so ye, poorly explained by my part. They would unlock after you completed the story of X zone. Let’s say you finished the ‘red sea’ msq. You would gain all the ether currents, aka you would be able to quest without having to waste time or be frustrated in finding the paths.

Because yes, I do agree that you should not unlock areas where you have not been yet, would not make sense.

Regarding the idea to reduce them to 5 instead of 10, would be fine if you moved them all to locations where the msg takes you naturally anyway. That idea is somewhat similar to my proposal above