Eureka - The Time Sink

[Niqote]

That is a big problem with it though, it has very slow start up time, then at the end grinding is a joke, it is the complete reverse what progress is.

For example, lets say it takes someone 9 days, 2 hrs per day to get level 20, then 1 day to farm
What it should be is get max level in 1.5-2 days then farming for the relics 7.5-8 days.

Even though the total time is the same, situation 2 will appeal to more people then situation 1. You shouldn't be presenting players a mountain to start off with (Come to think of it i learned such analogy on the Japanese forum) It is not good to give players a mountain to climb to start off on. I have seen NO GAME be it main (like FFXI leveling) or sub event (side content like it is in ffxiv) that does this. That is why a lot of people are turned off by it, HELL even music has rules like this:
https://youtu.be/2lQVG7Gf7I4?t=342
This is a major turn off because you are presenting too much of a grind at the start, you need to introduce a small bit at a time, in all the games I played in everything I seen, this is the first time I seen a problem like this.

I see your point and how it would be good in most settings.
However because Eureka is supposed to be like FFXI, it's kind of fitting to have the level grind (Though its very comparable to other MMOs time wise since its only a few days).

I also keep in mind that like all other relics, this is Stage one only and you'll have to spend lots of time if you want to do 3 or more sets of gear and weapons (personally I am only doing 2 but I know people who want multiples or all of the relic weapons at least)

To me, Eureka's relic 1.0 (including elvling to 19) is the 'small bit' at the start (As you mentioned, small bits at a time). Now we need to wait for the updates for the next bit (iLvL increase, model changes, eLvL increase etc)

They really should have introduced eLvL sync on release though... that was a mistake, I think it would have helped alleviate very casual players confusion.