I had a similar reaction!
Spending a couple extra hours wrapping up quests and collecting conches (on the recommendation of a friend) wound up being well worth it for me, the true ending felt much more satisfying.
For what it’s worth, all the quests take somewhere around 20-40 minutes each, if I remember correctly. Even the collection quest wasn’t too bad, thanks to the treasure finding parrot.
Time of day is addressed in the study and
They also mention that the presence of the sun is possibly likely to affect dogs less than humans - meaning that dogs might have less aversion to facing the sun.
Study is here: https://frontiersinzoology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1742-9994-10-80