Do you feel compelled to do side quests? I've never understood that compulsion.
I skipped almost every side quest or secondary task when I played the remake, because nearly all of them just didn't seem interesting. That's the whole point of making them optional... the player isn't meant to feel like a machine that has to take every lead, you should be role playing as Cloud, who has some sense of overall purpose, urgency, and impatience for pointless tasks. These are in the game if someone really just wants to stay in the world longer, but I don't see why anyone would pursue them if not interested.
Anyhow, my main complaint with the remake is just the real-time combat. Everything else was much better than I could have expected from remaking a classic. (I don't get the grunting thing above; either I just didn't notice it, or it's because I use the Japanese audio & subtites).