I love how Preston was only supposed to give you one quest at a time but he would just dump like three on you because it was bugged. (A bug in a Bethesda game?! Shocker I know)
I wish you could give him a team and send him to help settlements or stage defenses instead of going yourself. As the game works though I send him to a settlement I know I won't visit so I don't have to get quests pushed onto me
"Hello Nate, what's happening? Look we have some sort of problems here, mmm-yeah it looks like one of our settlements have raiders problems and if you could just take care of it right now that would be great, mmm-kay? Bye-bye Nate."
I just assigned him to a security desk at the Castle. Also, I kept doing all the missions he would send me to, and at some point he just stops. Maybe he only had a limited amount or I broke the game, but it feels like a victory.
This is why Sim Settlements mod was made. It completely automates the settlement system & they do just fine without my intervention. Just pop back every 2-3 days pickup the loot & dump it into the workshop the settlers will arm themselves
I hate to say it but that perspective actually works for preston. Like everyone wants their quest done by John Fallout but he doesn't have people skills without Preston's middleman work no one would ever follow Nate or Nora