Yeah the sidequests I got so far are universally "go grab 5 of this thing" is all, I need to get some interesting ones
There are three kinds of quests in Xenoblade X.
Basic Quests - These are quite literally filler quests. The only point to doing these is if you want to get some BLADE points/already have the items required for Gathering quests/want to look for a random Tyrant to kill. Sometimes you will get a Basic Quest categorized as "Social" which will lead you to someone with a Normal Quest. The easy way to filter this is check the Mission Board, press Y to bring up the filter and select Social quests, this way you can easily find any Basic Quests that will lead to a Normal Quest.
Normal Quests - You get these from people around NLA. This quest type contains the more interesting quests, especially the ones that involve decision making that affect the outcome of the quest (and the fates of NPCs involved depending on the specific quest in question).
Affinity Quests - These are special quests that become available when you reach enough affinity with a particular party member. These quests are fully voiced acted and usually delve into specific characters pasts or what's going on with them in NLA right now. These ones are my personal favourite.
Main Story/Mission - Progresses the main story to the next chapter. These are pretty self-explanatory.
EDIT: And yeah, SAVE BEFORE DOING AN AFFINITY QUEST, DO NOT SAVE DURING since you can't abandon them once you start, they have to be finished in order to do any other Affinity Quests or Main Story chapters.