They often feel like the filler episodes in anime.
Despite them being "side", at least in my story, they're still related to the story, but I guess it's probably not like that for others
When you call something a side story, you already say it's worth less then the main story.
Because otherwise that thing would be part of the main story...
So yeah, that makes it less appealing to some.
I see, i see. I only ever use it when the event that's happening doesn't have the MC in it.
Here's an example.
There's two supercontinents in my story. Mc lives in human populated continent. The character im introducing is in non human continent. I couldn't find a good way to introduce them in the story since they live so far away, so i had to create a small batch of "side stories" for her that dictate her journey to the human continent...
Idk if that's the same for other stories, but yeah.
Sometimes if the story is medicore, yes. But for most of the times, no. But probably most people do because its probably not relevant to the story or repeating the same thing again in different POV and the only character that matters is mc and no one else
I used it a few times in mine to introduce new characters that don't have the MC in them yet.
I'm not planning on making an mc-focused story, so I used the side ones to introduce them if the mc has like no way of contact yet, or if he's not necessary in it.