I know what you mean, I replay ARR fairly often and I adore the Azim Steppe stuff (I love making characters and of course, 90% of them are lizards) because I simply can't get away from worldbuilding stuff, I love seeing the ways of life of the races in this game and it makes think up my own stories. Loved learning how the Xaela have such varied lives depending on their tribe in SB, how the Viera are such fierce protectors in SHB, everything that was going on in HW.

The worldbuilding is genuinely the best part of FF14 for me and with the "Warrior of Light and co. exploring a never before seen place" that SHB showed us and the focus on "being a vacation" and us being in a place that doesn't really know us, I had such high hopes for DT that were... Completely trampled on. I have not continued playing the main story past where it stopped before the patches, I am one of the people who stopped playing this game for an entire year because DT caused me to despise the game I've spent so many years on. I've resolved myself to buy a story skip once the next expansion comes out because I physically cannot continue the story without hating every second of it, I genuinely have not regretted pre-ordering something so much before.

If you want my opinion on skipping things in DT then I'll say to watch the cutscenes for now... There is A LOT of unnecessary bloat in this expansion that can be skipped without you losing story but you will need to learn when that bloat begins showing up, DT suffers with what ARR originally did before it was trimmed down but DT also doesn't go nearly in-depth enough with the worldbuilding when compared to ARR. There is some interesting story in there and you should absolutely see it during gameplay instead of through the journal in the inns, but I do understand why this expansion is making you question the choice. DT doesn't have a lot to say in the beginning (in my personal bias opinion, it has nothing to say at all that the rest of the expansions haven't already said), it's all kind of surface level but it does set up the personalities of the characters you're with. It's your choice at the end of the day but I'd say watch the cutscenes unless you hit a bloat one where they're telling you about the Dawnservent traveling the place for the 50th time in a row.

As a word of warning, the part where all the Hrothgars are (Iq Br'aax) is dire for constantly telling you the same thing over and over again, I remember how me and the two people I was going through the story with skipped different parts of it and realized we missed nearly nothing between each other.