Personally I hate having story content locked behind this mechanic. Breaks my immersion and gameplay flow all the time because I am in constant fear of missing story for not clicking a silly button in the bottom right to get the story. And even worse is that it intentionally is designed in a way that assumes the player must be so terrible at the game that they require long rests every 5 steps of the way.
Personally I can do the entire Nautiloid, Beach, Grove, Blighted Village, Risen Road content without ever taking a single rest whatsoever. Once I am at level 4, I can do the entire ACT 1 without ever resting whatsoever... but instead I gotta rest 4 times before I even get to the Grove or I'll miss out on 4 unique pre-Grove scenes. At the Grove I gotta rest at specific moments in order to not miss any content. Then between the Grove and Karlach I have some freedom finally, but after I get Karlach as Dark Urge there's 5 scenes lined up.
Just messy and awful, I wish it was never a thing honestly but hopefully they do some improvements or at least some sort of indication/motivation to rest.
