I've seen people get annoyed because they think the plot is revolving around these NPCs rather than themselves.

Yeah, that's part of why I ran the guild pursuit subplot the way I did... having Common-speaking people tracking the party through the wilderness allowed me to make the trip more interesting (hopefully), but I also made it clear that they're moving outside the territory. In the end, they got three combat encounters and some roleplaying opportunities out of it.

The climactic battle was also more interesting than "You reach the edge of the kobold infested territory" or a last stand by the kobolds alone would have been.