We're not talking about different things at all. You're just not seeing it from a character's point of view.

If the character is "taking a break" that's exactly the same thing as "abandoning." The character doesn't know the quest line; the player does. Only the player can "take a break."

I specifically said "If you do one of those things, the Main Quest will be frozen in place, and will never bother you again. No Oblivion Gates, no more Mythic Dawn attacks. And you can take up the quest line again at any time, if you choose, right from where you left off."

So, yes, we're talking about the same thing.

The rest of what you said is exactly what I already pointed out, that different characters are going to have different motivations. My whole question in this thread is "given that Jauffre and Martin walk away into the fortress without so much as a word of invitation, what's the character's motivation in continuing the quest line?"

My whole point is that character motivation (or lack of it) is sufficient reason to abandon (or take a break from) the Main Quest.

My issue with the MQ is the Gates themselves littering the landscape. If I follow the MQ, I use a mod that stops any random gates from opening, simply because I don't want a messy world to play in.

I am using an Alternative Start mod and currently the Amulet of Kings is around a Rats neck in the sewers and will stay there for the duration of this character. I have beaten the MQ enough times in this game so that I know what I am missing out on.

And now I'm considering doing this with Ughoth the Orc mage - the one who's currently (still) parked on the last hill before the approach to the Kvatch turn-off.

With the vast majority of my characters, I've just dropped the Amulet off and then completely ignored Kvatch. But that takes a bit of really undesirable hand-waving to work - first, I have to make believe that Jauffre didn't repeatedly insist that the PC and the PC alone is the one who MUST rush right off to Kvatch and blah blah blah. I just sort of pretend that the conversation, such as it was, went some other way - whatever fits with the character's story. And then it requires the character somehow entirely failing to notice that shattered hulk of a former city sitting up there in plain sight along the road from Skingrad to Anvil (which in turn all too often requires console killing Hirtel so that he won't run down onto the road and tell them all about it) and all of that has always been... less than satisfying. I had been toying with the idea of leaving Martin at the encampment (I hadn't considered that 'til I saw Acadian mention it), but from a character standpoint, I'm not sure if that makes sense either. The only reason that Ughoth is considering going to Kvatch is Jauffre's exhortations, and he was clear that what he wanted was for Ughoth to find Martin and bring him back to the Priory. So unless I'm going to make believe he said something else (in which case I'd just make believe he said, "Okay, thanks for the Amulet, now be on your way"), leaving him at the encampment just doesn't seem appropriate.

But I sort of like this idea. I hadn't really thought about it, but it's true - when you get to CRT, they just turn around and walk up the stairs without so much as a by your leave. That's the point at which I muse to myself about how stupid it is for them to leave the door of the Temple standing wide open, then close it on my way in, but maybe the better option is to close it on the way out.

And I already know the console command to stop further gates from opening, so that'll leave 10 or so open, which can be easily enough dealt with, and then I can play it that the crisis passed... somehow. I don't see any reason why Ughoth would go back up to CRT, and he wouldn't have to so assiduously ignore Kvatch, since he'll have been there and seen what's there and seen that there's no particular reason to go back.

Huh... that makes me think - Kvatch Rebuilt starts pretty much the instant you retake Kvatch and can run concurrently with the MQ. I wonder if it'll play all the way out if the MQ's never actually finished... I'll have to check into that.

[edit] - and no, KR won't complete unless you progress and eventually complete the MQ. Oh well...