I'm feeling like this game would benefit from having some type of quest pointer to show me where I need to go to get the game's story to proceed. I feel like I'm spending a lot of time walking around looking at things in each area I progress to trying to find how I can make the story proceed. Time I'd rather spend doing something else, really..

Many games address this matter by having something in the game to point players in the direction they need to go to make the story proceed.

Most likely, they chose to not include quest pointers during the beginning of the design phase because they wanted it to be like old RPGs that required people to wander until they find the correct characters to speak to. They thought searching all areas until finding the correct characters would cause a feeling of exploration. I prefer this method, because I like exploring, but I understand that many people would prefer quest pointers.

Sadly, adding pointers would probably require so many adjustments deep in the engine that you shouldn't expect that feature to be added during this late stage. Even if they decide to add that feature, it definitely won't be in the next patch, because the developers said the next patch is specifically being planned to only include solutions to the most important glitches. If they decide to add new features, they would be added after the next patch.

That sounds like a good reason to have the quest pointer be optional (perhaps even off by default if you like), not a good reason to take it out of the game entirely.

I'll take a quest marker on the map.