I've made so much progress that I wouldn't want to try it myself, but I've been wondering: Would there be any benefit to completing as few quests as possible when you first start your game?
That is, if you never pick up anything that's part of a quest to unlock more items, would the really rare items (which could theoretically appear at any time) be more likely to show up? I can't help thinking that these dozens and dozens of new items I'm unlocking are making it less and less likely for me to find, say, a Book of Mushrooms!

Has anyone tried this "holding out for the best" strategy, waiting for rare treasure before unlocking more frippery? Or would it not make an appreciable difference, since the odds against finding coef. 4/5/6 item are so high anyway? What do you guys think?