I am just super sceptical that this happens non-stop in actual play. I don't see it in by BitD play, I don't see it in
@hawkeyefan's actual play example of superficially connecting basic ruin exploration to character motivations, I don't even see it consistently in your play examples. Like sure, there are moments of truly challenging character's beliefs and such, but that just won't happen non-stop in every scene except in superficial way like with Mialee and gnolls or whatever it was.
And of course there would be more to the sister and the cult than just saving here like some McGuffin. For example as an obvious complication she has joined the cult and tries now to convince the character that the despite how it may seem, the cult is actually good. Now there is an obvious conflict between defeating the cult and rescuing the sister.
And this is exactly the superficial connection where the motivation is only ties to the end goal you just criticised in the previous post. And sure, but that logic you can do TNG, as every character has motivations of "boldly go" and "solve problems" and you can claim every episode relates to those somehow. But that is superficial and you could probably claim that almost all D&D play is motivated by the characters at that level too, be it via their alignment, greed or lust for adventure.