I usually don't have time to play games so, when I do play, I rush to the end.

With this game, I played slowly and savored every moment. There was a time when I was over 50 hours in and hadn't made any progress aside from completing Shrines. I said to myself, "I may not ever finish this game. It's too much."

Fast forward to the present. I've beaten the game, done almost every side quest, and I still want more. I even have a few days where I managed to squeeze in 8-12 hours!

Well, I'm definitely not following the main mission and am just running around seeing what I can explore :p

Though I currently am trying to complete another beast at the moment

Open world games call for this. I've done the same in Zelda and in Horizon. I'm currently level 46 in Horizon with only 6 completed main quests.

The thing about Zelda is that you'll see one thing and begin heading there. Before you get there, you'll be distracted by something else. Before you do that, something else will get your attention. Suddenly, a whole play session has passed and all you've done was dick around.

Same here! It's crazy  to play a game this long and not even  touch  the main game.

I only started dicking around after I completed everything (except the Koroks). I don't want to get burnt out before the DLC releases, so I've been limiting my playtime. Still got over 130 hours, in my main file, though.

This. I played with the aim of taking my time and not rushing to the end but I still want to be making progress. So while I aimed to explore the whole world in a somewhat logical manner I allowed myself to be distracted. When I felt that I was getting aimless I would spend some time back on the main quest.

Open world games have always been trouble for me because I'm too easily distracted with side missions and exploring. i should have been done with this game by now, but yes I'm having fun, but focusing on the main missions is such a struggle. despite having it since launch day, i've only managed to take down the ultra beast in the guredo desert.

Who cares. You lose a lot of stuff in other games, because you follow the directions given. Practically every game has something if you go around aimlessly.

Games are for fun. If you have fun dicking around, than do it. If you have fun seeing the credits after 5 minutes, then go for it. Either way, you shouldn't play and be bored or something, only because you believe it is the "right" way to play.