No, sitting on a mount, riding for half an hour or sitting on a flightpath gryphon watching it fly for 15 minutes is wasting time. Time that could have been used to play the game. To kill monsters, to experience interaction. Riding/walking/flying for a short time is ok, but having to do it all the time and for long distances is wasting my playtime with waittime.
BTW, you can't really "finish" a MMORPG. There will always be unfinished business, even if you have cleared mythic.