The naval gazing isn't really that bad in the Steins;Gate VN, it's nothing compared to MLA. A better comparison would be something like Chaos;Head, and well, that adaptation didn't work out so well. Cutting out Extra and Unlimited sounds like an easy solution, but the story doesn't work without them and there's no good way to tack that on as a prologue.
Well they not trying hard for C;H anime tho.
Again I think its just nature of story-telling in VN/LN, for Example Yuuya's cynicism isn't much different than Shirogane and TE's anime actually have a lot of his naval gazing/babbling to himself, but its worked just fine. Some member at here complain cause that make too much talking happen tho lol
Fate/Zero anime also practically cut ALL the monologue and naval gazing from the source.
Yeah, of course its harder to being done than said.. but kinda blend the all three will work better than straight adaptation if someone can pull it, and for adaptation we shouldn't worry too much if its not played just as like the source.. If just the adaptation can bring the best moment to the fullest its already good enough, many adaptation fail to do just that.