I'm all for interesting side quests, but it does hurt immersion a little when High Priest Powervac impresses upon you how urgent it is that you stop The Great Finger Eater and save the galaxy, but you've also really got to gather nine forget-me-nots for Widow Stoop and honestly, they're of equal importance.
Some games give you breathing room during the main quest. Like, your early contact in Morrowind outright tells you to fuck off and have adventures on your own for awhile. If devs are gonna make a big open world they should build around it like that.
Speak for yourself! I definitely ignore many quests that have practically no story when there's fleshed-out main story quests to do and I don't desperately need the loot or experience points, especially when combat is not the game's strong suit.
I'm playing Cyberpunk 2077 right now, I'm about two thirds into the main story while pretty much ignoring the fixer quests (which tend to be generic) - the combat system of the game doesn't really do it for me, and the main story is really fun.
I tend to usually get distracted by side quests for some reason, but yeah each person plays their own way. The main thing is that you have fun, and that's the most important thing.