RPG

I think it's just all a bit antithetical to how I run my games. I've really only used random encounters one time, and that was when I wanted to make a "classic dungeon crawl" and created an encounter chart to roll on when the PCs backtracked. That way, it would feel like the dungeon denizens were looking for them more the longer they were in the dungeon.

If they're picking a path to get to an objective, then I want to reflect the flavor of that choice. If they've decided to cross a swamp, then I might have them run into another boat being attacked by a strange tentacle monster. Or, if they've decided to trek through the forest, a group of fey who are sick of the mortals encroaching on their land. Preferably, this ties back into the central story: the other boat in the swamp is carrying a rival adventuring party after the same treasure as them. The fey have been enlisted by the big bad who stole the treasure in the first place.

And if they miss either of these, they'll run into them inside the dungeon eventually. These encounters are just a chance to foreshadow those things and don't feel 'wasted' to me.