Can't really start off exciting when your character was just forced to hide in Ishgard.
What would they do? Get into ishgard the suddenly another dragon attack? We just forced them to retreat not too long ago in the story. Or we get in ishgard and we're heralded as this amazing person in everyone's eyes and go fight dragons, ascians, find the scions, and clear our names at the start? That's boring.
A good story isn't always quick to start. First impressions are very important, and the first impression i got was good. They started off exactly how they should have, the party is exhausted and learning their way around new surroundings. They don't magically know where to go and what to do from the get-go. You need to build up to those events. The devs did it right in my opinion (not that the filler portions are very good, but it serves a purpose).