It took me about two tries to see how everything worked (just recently figured out how adjutants worked lmao before lending it to a friend). I was curious to try out Azure Moon, Crimson Flower, Cindered Shadows, and Verdant Wind and ended up doing just that. Ihave not tried out Silver Snow as much as I would prefer for completion's sake but that route doesn't interest me as much (besides I basically already went through it ala Verdant Wind) as the others.
I hear you about the map designs. The newness started to fade during my third playthrough when I started to get accustomed to everything being kinda... shit and just wanted to get a more "complete" view of the story so to speak.