I don't mind mining; you put on some trance music and off you go.
It's stunning how much this game is like Everquest 2 in its prime. Still more casual of course (after all, in EQ2 you'd actually get XP debt when you died, and almost everything past the very starting area was group content) but the closest game to EQ 2. Amusingly enough, EQ2 itself was considered casual also by the EQ 1 fans that longed for the days of trains and losing your gear on death.
I just mention this because the mining/herbing is an exact copy. In fact, the entire game is a copy of EQ2 with a different world, different aesthetic, but the same combat system, an inferior crafting system and the same ideas: auction house is just a copy of the EQ2 broker, bank is identical to EQ2. I am surprised they didn't get into legal trouble.