1: Currently have a level 16 character sitting on around 50k adventure exp and a few others between 10-15 between 10k and 30k
2: I take freelancer writs and activate adventure mode if my adventure exp drops below a certain threshold.
I like to explore, but I consider most sources of adventure exp outside of writ completion and extended periods of adventure mode to be negligible.
I do wish there was more I could do with adventure exp, such as how bards can spend it to teach songs.
I like to go on an adventure and do some writs, and then 'return home' and spend the remainder of my play time in social roleplay, meeting new characters, crafting stuff for people, being a nuisance, and otherwise engaging with other characters.
That's not to say I don't engage during dungeons and writs, just that the action-oriented pace of that aspect of gameplay means more limited downtime.
At rpr 10 (and levels 3-9) I found the ticks a bit low but past level 10 and especially past rpr 20 I found the ticks were doing a good amount of the lifting, and I got a character to 30 through freelance writs, dungeons, sailing, and public intoxication.