But did they have to go and use an '!' exclamation mark symbol? They could have personalized the symbol and made it more in line with the FF theme/world. Come up with something new. I believe that FF11 used 'floating books' for battle quests and designated 'NPC's' gave you all your story game quests. When you were sent out into the field to look for story NPCs you were given a vague idea about where in the field to find them, but you actually had to explore the map to find them, and it was not difficult IMO. I could be wrong though.
I don't mind a system being implemented to 'hook n00bs by the mouth and be pulled a long' through the game, but I forsee ppl loggin in, going around the map adding '!' Exclamation marks to a quest list, then systematically completing them, and logging out. If ppl get used to doing this for 40+ levels, why would they ever bother partying or collaborating? It's an MMO after all? And the developers would be focusing resources to make this happen. Guildleves are already a form of '!' exclamation mark system, except now there will be more of them.
I don't think this classifies as "whining". If you pay for and play an MMO, you want to play with other people and you expect MMO content. If the developers are trying to keep single players happy as a priority, they shouldn't encourage single player game play in an MMO? Otherwise why would they ever attempt to make the jump into and actually play the game as an MMO, the way it was intended to be played?