>>527881856
>Now it's all about rushing to the monster as fast as possible
Always been the case, in older you had to reach the monster quickly as possible to mark because it could fuck over your time limit, in World you had sub camps right next to the monsters nest or spawn sure you had to walk here but the story goad you in most of them AND monsters didn't even move around the map that much and in Rise using the wirebugs were more optimal to travel.
Mount are just another tool to get you where you want like fast travel and wirebug were.
And free roam and visit quests are also here to let you see whatever you wanted around the map so you never have to do it during hunts.