I've never played FFXI. FFXI isn't old school. Neither is WoW. There is more free will in Pagos vs a linear dungeon. The difficulty relies on the ability to keep up the pace. I would never knock on someone for preferring the dungeons of today's mmos. I only find a few like Aurum Vale to be even remotely interesting, but I don't think they should be removed or become grindy like the relic quests should be.

Calling grinding a flaw for a relic step is silly. Grinding is not a flaw, but a feature. Relic always required some sort of grind, even in this type of mmo. Keeping up chains and positioning yourself correctly is a part of the challenge. DRG shouldn't use jump, when it could aggro another close by mob. Be aware of sprites. Don't be that party that stands next to another party. That will be learned by others over time.

Rez others in need. You have time to finish your chain, and good parties can spare a healer or RDM. You could also use LB to push one mob along, while someone raises. Play with your board. Maybe your tank doesn't need everything in defense to make up for those situations. Unless, they were harassing your group or another group, you rez them. That is how community forms. In Anemos, people would bring the 'danger noodles' to lowbies actually trying to help spawn a nm, so they would die. They would also drag a bunch of mobs to a nm on purpose. When lowbies spawned a nm on their side of the map, people got bitter over it. That's not good for community. That doesn't happen as much now, because the environment is more dangerous for everyone and the train is broken.

Even Raid groups have to clear their raids multiple times to get the gear they want, and that's with a lock out. So either do that, do this, or just run Lighthouse for a 370 weapon and then wait until next patch. You have options. Different options are available for different types of players.

Getting SE to destroy content for certain players, just so other people can have easy upgrades is a bad business move. SE wants as many types of players possible. People complained about Anemos up until the day Pagos was released. Now most people on the forums hate Pagos but like Anemos. It reminds me of the people that complain about the Disney Star Wars movies, comparing them to the much more beloved prequel trilogy. When the prequel trilogy came out, people hated it. They said it was not as good as the original movies. People also had complaints about Return of the Jedi, when it came out. Don't hate on something, because you aren't used to it. Learn what it is about, first.