Sounds like you'd wanna find another game, maybe a single player one with possible LAN capabilities?
The whole post sound like "I want it simpler and more convinient when moving around and also nothing mandatory what so ever but I still want rewards". What makes something mandatory is the rewards.
That said I find it wierd that there's no catchup for pve like with Soul Ash, and weekly quests for story progression still? I can understand the first weeks but now, with a new character? Why would they need to wait weeks to unlock things?
I like flying but not having it in the beginning is also nice. Especially with Warmode on