The game has changed significantly since its release, especially with Cataclysm. What you're playing right now is not what most of the people here were playing when they played the trial and went "OMG THIS GAME SUX GO FFXI!". WoW even has FF-style cutscenes now, complete with voice acting (though FFXI and XIV have more of a cinematic flair to them).
The trial was an easy way for RMT to set up their advertising bots and spam people without having to drop $20 on a fresh copy (still can be; occasionally you'll see mass bodies spelling out a website name). However, none of the missing features are particularly necessary for getting a feel for the game.I didn't like the battle system as much as I like FFXIV's though but it was ok I suppose. Have a few stupid restrictions on the trial though you can't send /tell's to someone unless you are on their friends list, also can't say anything in any other chat channel apart from party but you also can't invite anyone to a party either if your on the trial. In the end one of my friends somehow managed to get a random person to invite her to a party and then she explained and got him to invite us and then left just so we could play together. Seemed like a bit of a stupid restriction to put on it for a trial ><