To be fair, I sympathize with the OP's point to a degree, especially since Yoshi-P had made it clear he wanted players to have multiple ways to play.

But you can STILL viably solo through the game, albeit at a slower place and to be fair, partying should ALWAYS be the fastest/best way to level in an MMO, especially an MMO in a series with a high focus on partying in its single-player entries.

Like others have said, if patch 1.18 was game-changing, this patch rewrote the goddamn laws of physics. Things are SO different even the known bugs are nuts. You've gotta go out there and explore to find out what mobs will give you the best gains based on what you want. There's no fast track to anything now.

It's a brand new world.