If EXP parties and casual leveling content are not to be a focus of FFXIV, then I will lose interest. I am not the only one who feels that way. You think SE can afford to ignore the pleas of the casual playerbase?
SE will lose more players than it will retain by focusing on grinding. Grinding is not "cool" anymore in modern MMOs. It's all about rush to cap and put all the content there. The average casual MMO player doesn't want to wait 2 months to be able to do endgame content. It doesn't matter if that's not what you want. That's the bulk of the market and they know it. Maybe you'd be more interested in a Korean grinding MMO?