I disagree with this thread.

You can't say people are held back by old content just because they're leveling over the intended completion level. For one, Level 50 quests do not give EXP and they haven't given any indication that that will change. Second, old players who have not completed the storyline have only held themselves back.

Note that the Binding Coil of Bahamut, Crystal Tower arc, Hildibrand Story, Extreme Primals, and even the Relic quest is completely optional and will not be required for Heavensward. There is a ton of content available that isn't all that easy for new players that COULD have been required to play Heavensward, but they're not. All that's required is the Main Scenario Quest and I don't think that's too much to ask for.

Most of it you can be completely carried through with little to no effort anyway. For newer players I only see Steps of Faith (which is probably getting nerfed in tonight's patch for version 2.57) and possibly The Chrysalis to be stumbling blocks. Even in Single Player duties, you will be given incremental Echo until you become super powerful. In the ~2 years I've been playing this game I have never heard of any player not being able to complete a single player duty with maximum echo buff. All other content required is faceroll easy and SOMEONE out there will carry you through Duty Finder so there is no excuse.

I don't understand why you think "gating content behind other content" is a problem. It seems like you just use that buzz word as an excuse since "time gating", a legitimate criticism of the game, has been a notorious issue. But they are completely separate things. When you get locked out of a gate and you need to pass it, what do you do? Complain until it magically opens? No, you should go and find a key. Time gating is different because there is no key to find and you must wait and there is nothing you can do about it. The key to unlocking Heavensward gated content is to complete the Main Scenario Quest, that's all there is to it.

For people who want instant gratification and want to go explore the new areas right away without doing the earlier quests, that's just too bad for them. The developers never said this was an "open world" style game that you can do whatever you want whenever you want.