I need you to at least understand your OP.
People keep saying how amazing the story is, just so many people keep saying that ...If you bought skips for crafting, do you know what would happen ?Gave up half way through ARR and bought the story skip from the store then just ground out the levels in Fates ...
You'd lose valuable experience gameplay wise of both the mundane emptiness and the sweet excitement that is crafting.
You've ruined your own experience. You set yourself up for failure. The story all builds upon what was before. But you had no before, because you skipped it.
You bought that skip potion, excited to get rid of the boringness, but instead found yourself probably lost in another story. Not only now are you lost, but now you're completely detached from the story. I can tell you're lost because you decided to grind fates! Grinding fates would bore anyone to death, hardcore XIV player or no. It's like grinding out World Quests. Why ? Why would you grind out world quests when there are zone quests in Revendreth that are far more entertaining ?
WoW doesn't require worldbuilding or storybuilding. You can skip here and there and miss not a thing. Perhaps this was your expectation.
In XIV, if you skip, you won't understand the story or why you are doing the things you are doing in the MSQ.
But maybe you're right. I already have carpal tunnel. RIP my beloved Ulnar Nerve.
Edit: to add upon this, even when I boost up my alts I feel detached from them. I even had this feeling in WoW. For me a character is a very personnel thing and experience. You had that in crafting and somehow it didn't translate well in the leveling experience. Take your break fren and mayhap you find your way back.