I'm usually with you on the "skip the quests you don't like", but it really doesn't feel like an option for this series. Each of the remake games are priced at $70USD and it's not even a full story, technically speaking.

It feels really bad to not do side content, because it feels like you're not getting your "money's worth" psychologically. But the side content varies so much in quality depending on the chapter that the game just feels like a drag. It especially sucks because the OG FF7 is such a well paced story IMO, with a good balance of action/plot vs silly downtime.