Is there anything meaningful/gratifying to do in this game that's not MSQ?

;);););););):confused:

There's a lot to do in this game but at your point you've at least seen or heard of everything, and if none of that holds any appeal for you, your tone already sounds like you're done with the game, and it's probably not for you.

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Originally Posted by JohnJacobAstor

Gathering and crafting also requires me to finish MSQ before I can reach a point where I can make any real money or obtain useful material

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There is low level Recipes that are hardly touched, same for Furniture, you can basically make Millions out of that if not even more so.

Being a Lv.70 Gatherer just brings you into Markets that are full of competition, if not you won't be able to keep even up.
That's more likely due of some People putting 99x Stacks on the Marketboard and they certainly will undercut you extremely.

Speaking about 2.1 --> 2.55 Story, yes... they're full of fillers.
I wouldn't say the same to Heavensward / Stormblood though, there are a few but SE has learned of their mistakes and tuned the amount of Quests down.

Shire Gear was iLv.260 if I recall that correctly, upgraded via Heavensward Raids you'll get those Pieces to iLv.270.

That is basically enough until you hit Level 62 (63 if you count a Optional Dungeon and it's iLv.270 Loot), so in short if you expect Upgrades under Level 64, it's not happening.

If you don't like what you have seen so far, you won't like the rest of the game either - because it is fundamentally similar to what you have gone through.
You should quit the game instead of making yourself unhappy by playing it.

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Originally Posted by InkstainedGwyn

There's a lot to do in this game but at your point you've at least seen or heard of everything, and if none of that holds any appeal for you, your tone already sounds like you're done with the game, and it's probably not for you.

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My tone aside, can you tell me concretely what those things are that I can do? Anyone in my position would be frustrated, but I've summed up my predicament as best I could, and legitimately am wondering if there is anything else I can do that has some lasting impact on my character and isn't gated behind endless MSQ that I do for hours everyday despite it boring me to tears.

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Originally Posted by JohnJacobAstor

My tone aside, can you tell me concretely what those things are that I can do? Anyone in my position would be frustrated, but I've summed up my predicament as best I could, and legitimately am wondering if there is anything else I can do that has some lasting impact on my character and isn't gated behind endless MSQ that I do for hours everyday despite it boring me to tears.

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Lasting impact? No, and you won't find that in many other MMOs either. Every now and then the level cap is raised (usually with a new expansion), and then everything you did before becomes obsolete and you need to get back on the treadmill again to get new levels and new gear.
Everything in this game is gated behind the MSQ in one way or the other.

What one finds satisfying or gratifying in this game is subject to personal preferences, and subject to what they want out of the game. For example, I want a challenge, so I raid and prog/farm high-end content. But said content is all gated by the MSQ, as it’s part of the end-game.

I think the question I have is what do you personally want out of the game?

I personally don’t get the impression you’re enjoying it, and you highly dislike having to slog through MSQ/that everything is blocked by it. That’s the formula of this game (has been for 5 years), and it’s not going to really change in the future with more expansions and patches—everything will always be gated by/reliant on you completing the applicable MSQ. So I don’t think this game will really give you what you want at the end of the day.

If you're skipping all the cutscenes, how do you know it's more of the same?

The story is a big part of the game for me, and Heavensward was my favourite part of it, though it does take a while to get going. Plus I'm leveling alt classes just so I can see the job quest plotlines, and doing other sidequests that get you nothing but more story (and maybe some glamour items). But I know the game's presentation of the story isn't for everyone.

I think we are looking for very different things out of the game though. I'm very uninterested in the harder endgame raids that seem to be the ultimate goal for player content.

Also for making progress on building up your character if you're already geared beyond your current MSQ level, that won't really come until endgame when you can't overlevel any more and instead you're building up your item level. When Heavensward came out, nobody would have had Shire gear for ages after reaching the level cap, but now we can buy it immediately. Stormblood doesn't have that easy access to the best gear yet, so you'll have to work to build it up.

Though it all comes back to running dungeons or other content repeatedly to get either gear or tokens to buy your gear.

Outside of MSQ, there is...

Exploring Eorzea
Housing (decorating can be the true end game)
Glamour (also the true end game)
Collecting minions/mounts
Achieving world first (this is EXTREMELY difficult to do if you have no enthusiasm for the gameplay)
Mastering your main job...or all the jobs
Job quests
Side quests (you won't care about either of these if you're furiously skipping cutscenes thinking it's all the same - This game is 100% about the story)
FATEs
Creating novelty characters
Mastering Perform and busking like a boss in Limsa
Creating mini-games for fun
Collecting all the dances
Roleplaying
etc

Buy an entire housing ward.