I don’t remember them being that bad in the expansions. Maybe it’s just the beginning of Shadowbringers? One thing is though if you skip most of the story you obviously won’t like the story as much. I remember by the beginning of Shadowbringers I really liked all the characters in the game. Especially Alphinaud even though I HATED him in the beginning of the game.
But yeah Shadowbringers to me had some cool music (although I didn’t like the guitar riff for the battle music) and I liked the story with the Warrior of Darkness, but it wasn’t too memorable besides that.