Is the travel system in this game and all the instancing temporary?

I agree with you there, the small size and lack of variety/interesting things to do Currently in the game and the long load times are big negatives for me as well. I believe in the future we'll have more things to do in any random hex we enter. (Hoping so anyway) I expect I'll be checking forest hexes for rare spawn tameable creatures, for gathering resources, to find a fishing hole and fish for a rare fish... things like that, basically I hope I enter a hex because there are going to be things in there I want/need and they spawn most frequently in a certain type. Plains might be better for cotton and rare spawn antelope type creature that is tameable. Forests might be home to a large tamable combat beast, but rare spawn, also good spots for mining and forestry skills. As more skills come online we'll probably spend more time in each hex using our skills in the hex.. this will be particularly big once advancement comes online and they greatly reduce frequency of player wipes.

Load times need fixed, some bigger hexes might be needed. I think the direction they are going will work really well, we just need to realize there should be a lot more to do in these hexes once more features and skills become available.

 

Sadly, the current implementation of the hex system will only be a millstone around the neck of this fine game.