I too have had some work related issues keep me away from the game at times, and have missed certain parts of the living story. Too me it’s no big deal, but I understand how it could be off putting, and frustrating for others.
Would it help you if there was a way to go back and recap what you missed in game? Without going back and replaying the story. Say for example a news boy in Lions Arch, that would give you a brief overview of what you missed Think of it as a newspaper archive. Take the end of the Nightmare Tower story for example, you pull up the archive pertaining to that specific story, and while the cutscene of the tower exploding is playing you get a voice over explaining what led to the towers destruction.
I don’t know how much work that would take devs but it’s it’s an interesting concept.