Must be a minority in this forum then because the complete lack of time mattering ruins the narrative for me.
Like in fallout 4 you are 'searching for your son' but take a break every few minutes to erect another settlement. I mean, really?
Time constraints have a time and place in a story and the parasite isent completly inactive. You get the 1st stage of ceromorphosis after the dream sequence incase people forget so no, you cant take as long as you want to remove the hich hiker from your head.
Also if the encounters were more balanced so you arent blowing all your spell slots and abilities in every single fight the story could work just fine if it took part in say... 14 days instead of 7. Or 21 instead of 7. You still have plenty of time to faff about while still keeping the urgency of your situation somewhat of an issue.