I honestly get confused when people complain about grinding in MMOs because that is what the genre itself is built on-- grinding, whether it be for levels, gear, gold, reputation, or what have you. Compared to a lot of earlier MMOs, FFXIV is not grindy at all, and it certainly offers you a larger variety of ways in which to grind than just killing the same mob over and over.

If you don't enjoy grinding of some sort, then MMOs probably aren't the game genre for you, as you aren't going to find an MMO out there that doesn't eventually boil down to "grind stuff to get things."