Friends of mine, new to the game, becoming discouraged by STORY QUESTS

[Niwashi]

I see it as a problem with this game, makes it very anti-pick up and play in a sense.

WoW you can just grind to cap and raid instantly, here you have to spend a month or two going through all the filler and cutscenes.

I don't see it as "anti-pick up and play" so much as "anti-pick up and it's already over". Endgame is just what the name says, it's where you're stuck after the game has ended. You've run out of content and have to settle for just biding your time by repeating the same few things over and over until more content comes out. It's the gaming version of busy-work, and only exists because it takes longer to develop new content than it does to play it. That this game has a comparatively longer section of actual gameplay before getting stuck there is one of its biggest advantages over WoW.