The problem with making it a grind is there is no mid-range content worth doing.

FFXI was fine if the grind took a while because you had:

18: Subjob quest
(level subjob)
25: Nation Rank 3
30: Advanced Job quests
40: AF1 Quest
40: BCNM40s
50: Limitbreaker
51: Limitbreaker 2
52-54: AF Coffers/Key Farm Parties
56: Limitbreaker 3
58-60: AF3 Quest
60: Rank 6 mission Shadow Lord
60: BCNM60s
61: Limitbreaker 4
65: Level is high enough to farm gil off many L50 mobs (Okotes, Pcharm, Amemet-in party)
66: Limitbreaker 5
71: Limitbreaker 6
75: About 4 different time limited end-game activities (Yes sky was time limited with 3-6 hour pops)

And that was all in release (NA release)


FFXIV has:

25: Toto-Rak
20-30: Story Missions
30-36: 3 short JSQ's
35: Mid-Range NM (which no one does)
50: 3 endgame contents (Darkhold, Ifrit, Moogle) and arguably only 1 is worth doing.



Theres your reason right there why having a slower staggered leveling tree won't work with FFXIV in its current form, since it is a pure grind with no stops to 50.