I mean, the follow thing is a bit tedious. Still I get it that if they don't do it, people do tend to complain "Why is it always talk to npc, talk to npc, kill a mob, talk to npc." Granted, talking to the npc usually is not a problem since story is so good.

This said, and putting aside cost effectiveness, obviously it'd be a lot more fun to have enemy encampment to sneak into - due to whatever reason, perhaps they have a hostage and you can't go in 'guns blazing'. In some situations it feels natural to follow someone, in others... honestly, a stare from a butcher like WoL (who did kill a lot of Garlemald soldiers and defeated quite a lot of beasts of all sorts) could be enough to make someone talk and solve the information gathering in much faster fashion - but the problem that they have is that it's too specific, giving WoL too much character and so they become less of a blank slate.

Lastly, while I am by no means a fan of 'stealth' in FF XIV, the DT iteration of it felt cleaner in execution than Endwalkers, there was less random 360 spins in middle of nowhere, with no cover after game said "stay close" so it was not nearly as annoying.