I've been playing this game on the same character with the same name since PS2 launch, and have happily enjoyed this game for many many years. I've been leading a small group of players through the Odyssey grind for roughly two years, and have been doing my best to keep the group together through sortie. Upon realizing that one weapon would cost us one hour each and every day (not including gather time, /yelling to fill out spots, party configuration, and strategy discussions) for at a bare minimum 6 months per weapon, I had two people drop from my group. Since finding new people would make the unbelievable grind take even longer, I've decided to mostly stop doing Sortie all together. I might join a shout group, but I've accepted that a stage 4 or 5 weapon is out of reach for me.
This isn't a message to get community sympathy, but moreso a message to the people running the game that this new content is toxic. Without a major change to this grind, I doubt anyone other than a select few will be able to take a weapon to stage 5. Congratulations to those of you who can make it but I personally don't have it in me. At least I have 1.2m muffins and 27 starstones stored up to finish taking my empy gear to +3.