IMHO, yes. I'm playing no portals now and I really enjoy the much more relaxed experience.

Rushing this game is depriving you of most of what makes this game good: The Journey. Sailing the (not so) fair seas, enjoying nature, building, sowing, harvesting, mining, crafting, all of it...

That is the game. Killing monsters? Just a byproduct of it. Bosses? I'm leaving them alone right now in my "No Bosses - No Portals" run.

It's great.