Great job up to this point.
I have yet to read a single forum / blog post / video from anyone liking the renown system. Sometimes it is okay to admit things aren’t working.
It will probably cost the team more in both money and stress to keep the feature and make it feel natural than it would to scrap it entirely.
Don’t worry, you don’t have to force us to the sidequests for us to enjoy them. You did a great job with the narrative. We will get there on our own time. Gamers don’t need incentive to appreciate good games.
You don’t need to gate skill points / paragon points behind story content. Many gamers don’t care about the story. They just want to smash hell minions mindlessly. Let them smash hell minions mindlessly.
Stop telling people how to play the game just let them play the game.