Side Quests XP is a joke

[Jojoya]

If they are solely intended to flash out the lore, why do the give xp at all, and aren't of the no-xp variant, like the level 100 quests, or the Endwalker level 90 quests, ect?
Why does exploring the lore and grinding for XP have to be seperate activities? We currently have 21 jobs in the game that can go to 100: Is leveling a single one of those 21 jobs through to 100 with side-quests really too much to ask?

Ask SE why they give any XP.

Level cap quests give no XP because XP is useless at level cap. I don't know why they give the level cap MSQ from prior expansions the minute amount of XP they give. It feels pointless. Again, something to ask SE since only they know why in those cases.

Ultimately, they want players choosing group content for leveling additional jobs to keep queues filled. They do offer some solo content for those that prefer to avoid group content for whatever reason but those options are intentionally made less optimal for leveling than group content.

Keep in mind I'm not saying they shouldn't do it. I'm fine if they do, I'm fine if they don't. But they have shared some of their reasoning over the past decade and I'm passing that on. Primarily, they want group content to be the best way to level and so they leave other options less efficient.

There's a pretty easy way to make these still rewarding. Not to pull from WoW but a zone reputation system would be nice, make it have small benefits like faster ground speed to catch up during the MSQ or more bicolor gemstones per fate etc. Small enough that they aren't required but are a nice benefit to those who want to complete them.

I think from what I remember they nerfed the exp and put it into the MSQ so people wouldn't feel required to do the side quests, so they likely won't do that unless they become available after the MSQ is complete.

They've never nerfed the XP from side quests. It's always been an extremely poor way to level going back to when I started just before HW.

The XP numbers did change at Shadowbringer's launch but that's because the numbers squish was being done across the board and XP was included just as much as player stats were. If you were to look at the XP number as a percentage of what was needed to gain a level, there was virtually no difference.

They're not intended to level another class, but why not? Effort?
There's lot's of instances on MSQ that we're taking the role of cameraman and are showered with exp.

It would be extremely nice if we could get at least halfway from cap with just side quest.

I'm going to start leveling another side job soon. Being the curious type, I'll do my best to avoid all other content and see how far I get with just the side quests. I'll have to go back to see how much XP was lost by doing the side quests for Aether currents while working on MSQ. Fortunately, I haven't started Cornservant yet on this character so I don't have to worry about adding that in.