This is a variation on ideas that have come up many times over the years. In relation to the Baldur's Gate transition system (and something similar has been suggested), remember that Baldur's Gate didn't give you the map option for every transition, but rather transitions that go between "clusters" or regions on the map. In some ways, that's what we have now with the system of portals and ships, in that they cross between specific points on the map. The two key differences is that our "clusters" of areas are larger than they were in BG (by far...as is our total area count), and BG let you transit from one "region" to any other region from one of the designated transition points. But then, the way BG is structured is really quite different from how NWN is structured. Technologically speaking, there's not really anything preventing the notion of a caravan-like travel system, though again...we sort of have that already in a way; what you seem to be suggesting is adding more destinations to what we already have.
The random encounter idea has come up too, and it's not a bad one, but it also has some extra challenges in the sort of persistent, open world setting that we have here. In BG, it was much simpler and straightforward because there was always only one party, the game forced the entire party to transition as a whole, etc. It's really an entirely different situation.
In relation to the quest system, part of the point is to encourage exploration, grouping at times and to go places outside of a person's or group's normal "loop" (which is not to imply "looping"...just the habits we all establish for adventuring, gathering, crafting, etc.). If there were a system to get you there, one of the key reasons behind the quest system would be somewhat diminished. We do realize that not all of the quests will be easy or even completeable in time or by all characters. This is a big part of why they expire automatically.
