I can totally understand that, but I also promise you don't need to engage with any of that stuff until much later, if ever. I've never used the owl, barely used the mercenary stuff, never trained my buddies, and I rarely use more than a handful of items. I never even acknowledge the small monsters unless I kill them by accident.
My suggestions to keep it focused on the good stuff:
1. Weapons - Always upgrade. Craft the next available weapon with higher damage and armour with higher defence. Ignore elements and skills until you're doing 6*/7* quests. You can basically ignore buddy gear until you feel you want to bother with it.
2. Items - Register a loadout. Go to the item box and register a basic loadout with potions, mega potions, antidote, Nulberry and rations. Leave the traps and bombs and anything fiddly until you get used to the fundamentals. I never use that stuff unless I'm helping people out. Before each quest, just go to the box and select the loadout. Three seconds of prep.
3. Meals - keep it simple. Register a couple of meals. I never bother with resistances or anything fiddly. Medic, Defender, Weakener is 99% what I have, but they unlock over time. The main boost is to health and stamina so eat before every quest. Again, I just click click click Meal, Points, Usual, skip cutscene. Five seconds.
4. Quests - only big monsters. Skip the foraging missions and kill 20 little monster missions unless they're key quests. Just take on the big monsters. That's the best part of the game.
5. Play online. The carnage of wailing on a monster with three Japanese salarymen/JAV idols is the meat and potatoes of the game. Don't feel bad about getting carried through some tough fights so you can get better gear from the higher rank monster parts. Focus on staying alive, learning its moves and getting damage in where you can. Soon, you will be somersaulting onto its head and breaking parts with the best of them.
Also, the fast travel around the Hub is really snappy. Hold - and select from the menu, instant loading.
My preparation loop is:
Steelworks - upgrade if possible.
Fast travel - Gathering Hub.
Item box - Loadout 1
Canteen - Meal 1.
Quest Board - Join Request.
The above takes a minute at most.
My hunting loop is:
Stay alive. (Shortcut: L + right stick left for health items)
Keep my weapon sharp (Shortcut: L + right stick up for whetstone)
Kill the monster.
