Prep work for endgame needs is part of the genre. There is no MMORPG that does not sport this static tradition in some form, be it leveling other classes/jobs (this is not just an FF thing, despite what many may mistakenly believe), currency acquisition, gearing up, etc. Some may be more fun/tolerable than others, which is a subjective case by case thing, but it's all part of endgame. The more prep work you do, the more serious you are about endgame. This essentially translates to being the more work you put in, the farther you expect to go.

It's not exactly necessary to have though, obviously. However, one could easily argue that for a game like this, neither is leveling period. Outside of the initial few levels to come to the conclusion that your class/job is melee or ranged (this includes healers), you don't learn much trying to hit 60. I'd personally argue that it'd be more like the 50-60 range, but bad players at 60 clearly contradict that. The combat system is much too easy to necessitate a need to learn and, in some cases like BRD, practically useless until you hit 60.

Having said that, they could lower it if they really felt a need for it. There would be no immediate downside to that. The question is: is it really worth their time? IMO it would not be. This is a case where speed is the only real negative factor to complaints. Their introduction of things like the 30% ring drastically reduces the time you need to get to 34. It gets you to 31 in 30% less time, not including rested exp. If it took you 5hrs normally to get there, you're looking at it dropping to 3.5hrs, which is huge. If you can't afford that in an MMORPG, where time and preparation is (objectively) the heart and soul of many aspects of it, I don't think there's much room to complain. Dislike it all you want, that's fine, but I would hope that you wouldn't delude yourself into thinking your opinion is infallible on this one.