The story is great, but it blatantly gets in the way of the rest of the game

[Mirhd]

You truly think "if you don't like the MSQ, this game isn't for you?" is a valid reply?

It is a valid reply, and it applies to every hobby in life. Don't enjoy something for one reason or another? Stop doing it, otherwise you're just wasting your time and making yourself frustrated for no reason. What isn't valid is expecting the foundations of something to change because you don't like it. We aren't talking QoL or class changes, etc, we're talking "tear out the skeleton of the game and put something else in." That is absurdly arrogant and delusional, and it always baffles me that people think this is a reasonable approach for the devs to take.

I used to bounce back and forth between WoW and FFXIV (Wow since 2004, FFXIV since HW) before I acknowledged during BFA (well before the crap show hit), after years of decisions I didn't agree with, "ok, this just isn't for me anymore" and left. Never looked back, and the newest expansion doesn't interest me in the least. It's ok to stop doing something if you no longer derive entertainment from it. Sunk cost fallacy can take a hike.

You hate the story (questionable since it's the focus, but fair enough) yet still find things you enjoy about it, and that outweighs what you don't like enough for you to continue playing. Genuinely, good for you. You're a minority, though, and no, the forums are not the bulk of the player population and are a poor indicator of anything; the bulk never visit forums (as with any game or other hobby). If this were not the case, the devs would focus less on story and more on other things... and they don't, yet continue to gain and maintain a stable sub base, which is telling enough.

Funny thing is... the devs acknowledge there are some people that don't care about what they care about, so gave people an option to skip the story on the online store. "But people shouldn't have to pay to skip!", you might say. Hard disagree. Again, the story (whether one likes it or not) is the foundation everything else is built on. They never wanted story skip to be a thing and encouraged people to play normally, so outside of that, if you want to skip, better pay up. Seems reasonable to me. I've also seen on these forums (and elsewhere) that many newer players regretted buying a story skip because they had no idea what was going on and as a result had no investment in anything. They realised exactly what they were missing upon doing New Game +, and wished they had simply played through normally the first go, rather than souring their original experience due to a missed placed desire to get to "the real game" (lol?), or what have you.

One final thing... If one is rushing to "the real game" (again... what. the entire story is "the real game") so one can play with ones' friends... I have to ask : why aren't ones' friends playing with them? Make an alt, go through the story with your newbie friend(s), and relive your first time through the game by proxy. I did that with my sister, and it was great. Her genuine excitement made me excited, and her various "Oh damn" moments, etc, were hilarious. If a supposed "friend" isn't willing to do the same, well... that's a poor friend, imo.