Quote Originally Posted by Jeeqbit View Post
Aether Currents don't take much effort at all. Press the aether compass while on the way to each quest task and it will tell you if one is nearby. Pickup all blue quests that you see and do them when the main story takes you near to their objective. Once you finish the story events in that area, you will then be able to fly.

It's only tedious if you decide to be lazy and not pick them up while questing, because then you have to go back and get the aether currents for 18 areas and of course it's tedious doing it all in one go.
They absolutely do get tedious if you're doing the unlock quest chains as you try to do the MSQ. The Ruby Sea, for example, has an *awful* quest chain for one aether current that stalls the MSQ for a good hour and a half, and it's not even an entertaining or plot relevant diversion.

A failsafe at the end of the (non-current) expansion that would unlock the same progress the player would unlock if they'd just skipped to the current expansion isn't a bad idea, especially if people are wanting to encourage players not to just skip to the current expansion.