Ovinomancer
No flips for you!
I hope you don't, because that's nonsensical. Pretty sure you don't, for instance, incentivize not roleplaying at all and just directing characters as if they're plastic playing pieces, being as rote as possible in play. Or, at least, given what you've said I hardly think that this is the kind of play you'd want to encourage!I do, I incentivize everything by removing XP entirely.
You are, instead, incentivizing playing the game in a way you find entertaining. Luckily, it seems your table also finds that entertaining. This is usually a good thing.
It doesn't reduce any paths forwards. It provides information on what paths will gain what rewards. If a player feels that they're getting a larger reward from not doing the XP triggers, then they're absolutely free to do this. And this happens often enough, as players create their own goals for play.It reduces the paths forward for the players. They focus on what gives XP and minimize what doesn't. It just so happens that what doesn't can squeeze into the grand canyon in D&D XP through the editions.
And I'm not at all arguing that D&D has a well balanced or aligned XP system. I'm talking about what is, not what should be. I think a large reason many ditch XP in D&D and go with story awards is because that incentivizes the play that that group wants to see. That and the XP system is such a drag of boring accounting work that it disincentivizes itself.