While I completely understand the argument of "allow us to play dark knight, astrologian, and machinist without going to Ishgard," I don't understand the "I don't play combat classes, let me go to Ishgard" argument. We gain access to Ishgard via the story. The story requires you to do battle.

In FFXI terms (for those of us who played) this would be the equivalent of saying, "Let us go to Sky or Sea without having to progress through Rise of the Zilart or Chains of Promathia (respectively)."