Completing quests slowly in Sims Medieval to get better score?

Question

In Sims Medieval, quest performance is measured by character's focus, and it accumulates over time (both positive and negative focus). When a quest is over (all of the quest steps completed), the accumulated performance score determines the quest result.

This seems to imply that completing quests slowly will result in better quest performance, provided that the character stays on positive focus. The character does get some negative buffs if the quest isn't proceeding, so you can't perform too slow - but other that that it seems slower is better. This seems a bit thematically counter-intuitive, though - especially with quests like "missing child" which imply speed - so I'm not sure if I'm reading the rules right.

So: Is it a valid gameplay tactic to deliberately progress slow in the quest in order to get a better accumulated score at the end? If not, why?

If yes, is there way to explain this away diegetically? ^{(diegesis = "the game world")}

Answer 1

Yes, chilling out before turning the quest in is a valid tactic. Some quests are so short you'll virtually have to do that in order to get the platinum rating. I'd rather not perform the mental gymnastics required to explain it away, though.