It's very sad how bad expac zone design is. There shouldn't be a carrot on a stick like currents or the sightseeing log to encourage exploration, exploration should be its own reward. Those to me are just one of the many items on the FFXIV shallow content checklist I complete every expac, not something I do because I enjoy exploring the zones.

More condensed zones, sidequests that aren't obviously marked on the minimap and with a bit more thoughts put into them than "kill x amount of _ because ???" would go a long way.