Yeah, I tried to just raid when passing places, if I noticed I hadn't raided somewhere I'd travel there instead of fast travelling where I needed to be so I could knock the raid off. I quite liked the raids in the end.
Everything odyssey gets a load of love for, Valhalla seems to get a bashing for the exact same stuff.
Both games are definitely bloated, but I could see huge appeal for older gamers I'd think, they'd love to be trapped in the same world for hours and hours I'd think. My old man would love it tbh, he'd probably be fine on explore more or whatever it is