You should also recognize that a lot of the FFXIV content is just revised forms of what we had in FFXI. Assaults are dungeons, trials are BCNMs, hunts are NMs, FATEs are Campaign/Besieged, etc.

I agree with the idea of new and interesting content. That's always a good thing in an MMO. But, let's not pretend that FFXI was any less grinding than we see in FFXIV. In fact, it was in almost every case more so.