So after reading the OP it seems it's just another case of trying to sprint at full speed in a very long marathon.

And either he paces himself and plans for long term goals, or he will burst into flames and rage quit.

Edit >
Being at the same level as everyone else to do "relevant content"...

/sigh

What happened to playing to enjoy the huge world with all the quests, missions, stories, lore and adventure outside of the mindless repetition of "endgame"?

If this is how things are going to be in the future I guess the next step in "modernizing" MMOS will be to give all new players a fully leveled character with all the quests and gear already acquired so they can go do "relevant content" and leave the game a month or two later because "there's nothing to do".

I miss the old days so much... orz