Thank you so much for posting this. I'm about to do this horrific quest again and honestly I've been dreading it after what happened on my first playthrough (Qunari mage -- way to start deep in the rep hole right out of the gate).
I wanted so badly to enjoy and explore this zone. I was excited by the trailers and as a diehard roleplayer I really enjoy the verbal sparring of The Game. But THAT DAMNED TIMER completely ruined the experience for me. Instead of being able to enjoy the zone, I felt punished for exploring and panicked that my rep would drop to the point I'd be booted out and lose everything, and I ended up with incomplete secrets quests and missing Sara's side quests because I kept getting lost in those dark gardens.
The better solution, since all of your advisors and inner circle came to the party, would have been to let the Inquisitor remain in the ballroom and let a backup team do the covert work -- not unlike the Battle for Denerim in Origins where the main team went after the Archdemon and team 2 stayed to defend the gate.
I dearly hope someone finds a way to mod this with a "skip the tedious fade" option soon, or at least kill that bloody timer.