Just wondering, is there any advantage to doing these missions or is this something I can skip entirely?

Besides EXP and random items, I'm not sure these are worth the time. I've done paralogue missions thus far and those allow you to gain a new member to your party (like the villager Mozu), but I don't know if it's worth spending time doing these missions?

Any advice?

They're just grinding opportunities if you want to level your dudes up.

They are there for grinding. I usually do them, especially if I want to play Fire Emblem but don't have much time.

You can skip them, but I find they're pretty handy for leveling up weaker characters.

Ah okay that's what I thought.

Actually, I was thinking of buying the DLC Map Pack #1 because I found the EXP map in Fire Emblem: Awakening pretty useful, but I guess I can use these for now and see if I really even need that map.

Like others have said, they're just for grinding. You're absolutely right that they're usually not worth the time, rewards being slim. However, their main value is not in the XP/gold/drops, but in using the combat opportunities to level supports. Especially if you want to see more than just 1/2 support chains per person, this makes it a lot easier to get access to all of those conversations.

I just use them to grind S. Links, but they are entirely skippable.