Hehe, I like this analogy. Here’s my experience as a former “speed demon”, so take this with a grain of salt. I used the reorder script to make this possible.
During a normal level (not a fast level), there’s two batches of main quests. First batch is the radicals and initial kanji. The second batch is kanji that gets unlocked upon guruing the radicals. I always tried to do main quests as soon as they became available. In the down time while waiting for batches to reach guru, the next few days were for doing side quests (vocab). I’m sure all of this is written in Jeeper’s ultimate guide as well and in more detail.
Just in case, this heatmap might illustrate better what I mean with the concept of batches. Purple days were more intense since that was when the main quests unlocked.
Wanting to post in the 0/0 streak challenge thread definitely helped with motivation for completing side quests. Our methods of “clearing the game” might be different, so really, take this with a grain of salt. As a former student who studied Japanese full time, I had the time available to go the speed demon route. I wanted to get to as many kanji as possible so I could pass my kanji tests. Vocab was a great bonus - thought me readings we didn’t go through during class.
But yeah, like others have said, vocab don’t have to be pointless obstacles. There’s EXP to be gained from those too 