When I first started playing MH, I would almost always ignore these and go straight for the hunts. However, in MH3U, whenever I gain a rank, I do as much harvest hunts as possible before joining any online game. For High Rank Volcano, I did these so many times it became tedius.
Now that I am G-Rank, even though I have done a few monster quests already, I can help but just farm as much as possible during the harvest tours to get as many copies of the stuff they offer as possible. Even if I don't need it at the moment.
Anyone else doing something similar, or am I just alone in the harvest world?