Final Fantasy XIV is and has always been a game that is heavily focused on the story and requires the completion of the story before reaching end game content. That will never change. If you are feeling lonely and isolated, why not ask your friends to join you on some quests and queue with them in some of the starting dungeons? I'm sure they wouldn't mind at all.. I've done the same with some of my friends. If they have a multiple seat mount, it makes things go by a lot faster!