Grounds of valor is proving to offer pretty quick leveling outside of abyssea- even those groups have leeches, and there were leeches before abyssea. You couldn't fault anyone for going to abyssea after the 60s or so because soloing starts to get too slow and there were no parties outside of abyssea (until now). On DRK I soloed 90% of hte time all the way up to 58. Did grounds of valor pages on easy mobs until 68. Abyssea'd from there to 90 (and yes, I was able to fight).

If you know how to play your job (yes, it's a big IF), it doesn't matter how you got there.