You make an excellent point. This is one of the main reasons I am not interested in doing side quests mid game is (in my mind) I associate side quests with 'ultimate equipment' type stuff, and am always massively disappointed with the rewards.

Of course another reason, which I think is fairly well explained in my previous posts but I haven't explicitly stated yet, is that if the story is sufficiently captivation (as every FF game should be) I am pushing to get to the next plot point to see what happens. What I meant to say with the side quests being at the end of the game, is that it is a better place to insert them story wise not for the characters of the game, but for me, the player; as by that point most everything is explained and only the final confrontation remains. (Also, I can beat the game, and then reload my last save point and start questing from there.)