I don't see what the issue is with a level 30 Ifrit battle. It gives mid-ranks more stuff to do and it would most likely be a fight tailored to that level with level 30ish rewards, meanwhile the level 50 one will be much more involved with better rewards. There needs to be stuff to do as you go through the ranks instead of everything being level cap heavy, and with these coming updates it sounds like there is gonna be a whole ton of stuff to do, which will help new/returning players enjoy themselves more.

If you've played FF11 I guess I imagine it being like the Ouryu 40 cap fight vs. the Ouryu uncapped fight, although the lower level one was a story mission so no reward =P

@Chiz: The raids are already really nice forms of leveling at-rank. I've done Toto-rak at r33 and i still get maybe 1/3 through my rank, and it's really good xp at 25 when you can enter. Once we get xp chains in place it should be phenomenal. I just want more of them at different levels since they're a lot of fun and I'd love to level up in raids till 50 =)