This is a mess. So let's take it point by point.

Quote Originally Posted by TheForce View Post
@ForteNightshade
You've completely missed the point, also, your view on this is way too pessimistic. You claim it's so easy to level, yet you literally explained how you spend hours a day doing the same thing in order to do it. Let me inform you that needing to hold essentially gaming marathons for multiple days just to accomplish one thing, kind of means that thing is a big deal. If you need to put that much time and effort into doing it, then there's no way it's as insignificant as you're trying to make it sound.
Because there is no other way to process? Being forced to do something does not make it an accomplishment. If I want to process the story, I have to level. Granted, I don't actually mind doing so but it's simply a means to an end. I reiterate it requires no skill whatsoever. In fact, you can literally do nothing but spam 123 and you'll eventually hit 80. You're essentially equating a time commitment with an achievement. Clearing Savage or Ultimate falls into that line. Even your first EX Primal can be an argument since they require an understanding of mechanics and how your job functions. At least if you weren't carried. Leveling? Well. There's a reason it's easily exploitable by bots.

And lastly, why are people willing to spend 50 fricking bucks on it (level +story) if it's not a big deal? Come on.
I dunno. It may have something to do with that not wanting to do it. Just a thought.

One should take pride in reaching max level for the same reason that people take pride in beating single player games or even completing a long book/series...it takes dedication. And a lot of it. According to your stance, people shouldn't feel proud of themselves for completing a game like say, Nioh, I mean, all you did was run around and press some buttons, who cares right?
... no, it doesn't. The game practically throws experience at you. Once again, if you can spam a couple buttons, you'll be max level doing nothing but mindlessly AoEing down FATEs. I'm sorry but if you find this an accomplishment, maybe it's time to lift that bar off the ground. Once again, to each their own, however I wouldn't call simply completing a game's story an accomplishment for the same reason I wouldn't say reading through Harry Potter is. That doesn't make the story any less enjoyable, exhilarating or whatever other adjective you fancy but when it comes to games. Unless there is a difficult boss, puzzle or other sort of challenge. Why would it be an accomplishment? They are fun activities you may enjoy but that's it.

Now someone could make a personal goal they aim to accomplish. But that's not the same thing.

And your logic is flawed as well, how in the world are you going to equate buffs and jump potions? You shouldn't have even tried making this point, it's really bad honestly. At least with a levelling buff, one still needs to actually play the game and experience it. By level 50, you'll know how to LB, you'll know how to teleport, you'll know how to link, etc etc. Whereas with a jump potion, you press a button and that's it, you're now a level 70 character that has less knowledge of the game than a level 5. That's just not okay.
How can you insist leveling is an accomplishment worthy of pride... when it's progressively made easier and easier with each expansion? The equivalent would be akin to bragging you beat Titan or Thordan EX unsynced at level 80. It kind of loses its sheen just a little. Regardless, I can learn everything you listed with a five second google search. Or... you know, reading the tooltip? People have cleared Ultimate, the hardest content in the entire game, despite having jumped their character and skipped every cut scene. Meanwhile, I recently had a max level Scholar who still didn't know what Excog, Lustrate or any ability beyond Physick was—even though he leveled the "okay" way. According to you, this isn't possible. It's almost like... jump potions do not inherently impact whether a player will be good or bad.

Yoshi P himself has even said he knows that their implementation would (rightfully) anger the older players, so that's why he made them so pricey. You're trying to defend something than even the creator of the game knows is low-key scummy.
Yoshida does not determine the prices for MogStation items. He has said this repeatedly, usually to the Queen of the MogStation or whatever. All those prices are set by Square Enix. And wouldn't you know it, they base said prices off what other MMOs do. They're expensive because SE likes money. Shocking, I know.

And they should make an ARR story skip free? What? Why would the devs want to encourage people to skip the entire first act of the game that sets up so many things and teaches you how to play the game?Final Fantasy 14 does not begin at Heavensward. Please, never try to design a RPG game if this is your mindset. There is grind in this game, it is an MMO. If they can't make it through the relatively simple levelling, then the rest of the game is going to most likely disappoint them.This game cannot appeal to everybody, just accept that.
Because a large amount of people quit due to the slog of quests they are forced to partake in. There's a reason people keep bringing up ARR needs to be streamlined. The dev team has even commented on how they want to do precisely this... by potentially making much of 2.1 onward into optional side quests. Evidently, the story isn't as precious as you're making it out to be. Furthermore, ARR doesn't teach you a thing. You aren't shown a proper rotation or even told what half your abilities do. You're expected to read the tooltip or a player made guide—all of which someone can do before they even finish downloading FFXIV.

I would rather people have the option to skip ahead to Heavensward so the game is less daunting for people trying to catch up. If they want to take the slow route, awesome! If they don't, a brief synopsis of events can be offered to catch them up. Far better than seeing the myriad of reddit posts where people's friends gave up before even seeing Heavensward. Why? It takes a long time to get through ARR.