Why punish players who just want to play DoL DoH?

[Adire]

Except that would require SE to write a completely separate story for what is a small minority of the player base, which would take time and resources away from other parts of the game.

They have one story, and everyone, old or new, needs to complete that story to access the new areas. It's the most efficient and inclusive way of doing things.

What makes people who want to do DoH/DoL stuff rather than combat less important than anyone else? Gating the content in the first place was not very efficient or inclusive, and gating it behind a ton of combat quests was not fair to people.

Besides, it could be as simple a feature as making a GC-like representative with "Ishgardian seals" or something. You have a daily cap of seals you can get, you get a lot of them from turning in hard to craft items (similar to Ixal quest items maybe, but with much harder difficulty) or a few of them from turning in easier things to craft. Trade in enough seals, you get access to Ishgard for "helping the war effort against the Dravanians".

A new questline would be great, but there are simple alternatives too.

[Umo]

What makes people who want to do DoH/DoL stuff rather than combat less important than anyone else?

The story created around fighting against dark forces and saving the world, as already said so many times.
It's not that you, as a person, are less important than anyone else. Your 'crafting/gathering character' is less important than any 'combat character' for the Holy See and the Dragonsong War conflict, just the same way any 'combat character' who has not actively aided on the Steps of Faith fighting against the Dravanian Horde is less important than a 'combat character' who did so. Again, from a story point of view. Something this game is heavily focused on from start, like it or not.

[Felis]

The story created around fighting against dark forces and saving the world, as already said so many times.
It's not that you, as a person, are less important than anyone else. Your 'crafting/gathering character' is less important than any 'combat character' for the Holy See and the Dragonsong War conflict, just the same way any 'combat character' who has not actively aided on the Steps of Faith fighting against the Dravanian Horde is less important than a 'combat character' who did so. Again, from a story point of view. Something this game is heavily focused on from start, like it or not.

exactly this

Holy See: "Have you helped us defending Ishgard against the dragons?"
[yes] : "Welcome to Ishgard, friend"
[no] : "Go away, stranger. No entry pass for you"

[Laurell]

The story created around fighting against dark forces and saving the world, as already said so many times.
It's not that you, as a person, are less important than anyone else. Your 'crafting/gathering character' is less important than any 'combat character' for the Holy See and the Dragonsong War conflict, just the same way any 'combat character' who has not actively aided on the Steps of Faith fighting against the Dravanian Horde is less important than a 'combat character' who did so. Again, from a story point of view. Something this game is heavily focused on from start, like it or not.

The story is also centered around the idea of rebuilding - Which, judging by the photos and developer dialect, is something Ishgard appears in need of.