I'm sorry but this article is just silly doesn't represent gamers. Most people like the side content if you want to engage it. You want a "tightly nit narrative" then just skip the side content. It ain't that deep.

I skipped the side content to finish the story (except the card game) and just did the rest later.

I swear these articles made by JRPG tourist, just like the trails series, tales series and Persona series. All of these game have many hours of side content that the players have a choice to engage in. If you didn't like side content being present in FF rebirth, then Trails would be the worst franchise ever made for JRPG tourist.