I really don't see why everyone is so averse to playing a story based game, and then having to play the story in order to get to the next part.

If you were just thrown in HW without any backstory you would be lost... it wouldn't make any sense.
"So I skipped the 2.0 story but what's happening now?"
"Oh you're a fugitive"

If they were going to let you completely skip the scenario then they may as well make a whole new starting area out of Ishgard, which would take aaaaall those levels to write out and complete... so yeah, no.

Also, personally I enjoyed the Astral storyline more than the Umbral... that may just be me though.