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

[DPZ2]

I think the best thing they could do for future players is establish a new optional starting point, at 7.0+ or whatever.

They already do this. Today. It's called Tales of Adventure + One Hero's Journey, and costs US$50, unless discounted during a sale.

I don't have an issue with a new optional starting point at 7.0+ for an additional albeit lower-than-current price (say, US$15), without the gil reward. I imagine the complaints from long-time players about new players who don't know how to play rock, paper, scissors on their jobs will still abound.

Next time, tell your friends that ARR patch content can be skipped for US$11 by purchasing Tales of Adventure: A Realm Reborn once they hit level 50.

If your friends dislike story-heavy MMOs, they're not going to appreciate the leveling experience in any case. That's one of the reasons that there are a variety of MMOs, each with some modicum of success. That's why there are First Person Shooters and MOBAs -- different people enjoy doing different types of games.