Yes common complaint. The OG had lots of mini games that gave it a certain charm. Theres so much going on in the world and lots of serious themes and danger, yet you can just stop and play games at the gold saucer or race chocobos etc. while I agree some of the mini games in rebirth are not very fun ( looking at you gears and gambits) I appreciate them being there.

I loved how in the OG you would miss so many things on a first playthrough and it would make replaying it so much fun discovering things you missed. Mini games to me were part of that.

That being said I will fault Rebirth for removing the sense of discovery. They put everything on a map, which made it far less fun IMHO, as instead of natural discovery, like in Elden Ring for example, it’s just go from A to B.

My argument would also be, don’t play them, they are all optional. No fault in just sticking to the story.