The only thing I miss about WoW when playing FFXIV: Scrub's rights.

[Omedon]

Aaaaah, I see where the problem is, now. You seem to believe that those quests are an effective gate to prevent scrubs from reaching end-game content.

That's not the case. Because the bar is set so low, especially now that we have an easy mode, those quests simply serve as a wake-up call in case the player for some reason didn't realize he was playing an action-based mmorpg and to qualify this as a game and not a visual novel. If you believe that those quests are actually a gate, do realize that this is your problem. The community being conditioned has nothing to do with it.

I do think there are multiple cases in this thread where people are taking their skills and familiarity with this particular game very much for granted. Perhaps I do so with my meager WoW skills as well. That said, as a relative outsider looking in, there are some solo duty elements that are certainly gates, whether veterans wish to acknowledge that or not.