Is it worth it to collect all the [many] SAM memory triggers?

I would say yes it is very worth it.

Yes. Well worth it.

Yes it is absolutely worth it. To be honest it should've been part of the Main quest.

It is, but I can't believe they swept something so important up into something so padded and nonsensical. How and why does the triggers trigger where they trigger? What does some random hill on Eos have to do with any memory you unlock? Why are the memories even scattered throughout Andromeda when all the memories are from before Andromeda? It's completely arbitrary.

Yes, it added depth to Alec Ryder and a few other things

That could have worked too.

...anything except drive to point A and pick up the shiny orb, then go to point B and do the same.

This. Some of the best stuff in the game comes out of that fetch quest.

I feel like that is this game in a nutshell. "Do this deceptively bland fetch quest for a totally worthwhile reward".

It's the same with how that Voeld quest thing suddenly took me to one of the most memorable set-pieces in the game.

One of the things that ME: A does well is that it at least gives you an insight to your father and the Initiative and not just kill and forget him in other games like the human noble's Orgin story in Dragon Age.

I'll go out on a limb and say ME:A is my favorite Mass Effect game so far. It is, however, not without its flaws. Memory trigger fetch quest was fairly nonsensical in implementation, but the payoff is very nice. I agree that this should have been tied to other milestones in the game. Set up an outpost, unlock a memory. Reach a viability threshold, unlock a log entry. I would also have really liked a separate message that was tied to beating the critical path, not unlike the 100% viability on all 5 planets after the main story was complete.

I really liked the framework Bioware laid down for ME:A, it just needs some tightening. Remove some of the (quite well done, tbh) "task" stuff and a bit more into the character arcs and main story. If that's what MEA2 looks like, I'll be a happy dudebro.