I think if there's one thing I learned from Final Fantasy as an MMO, it's how important freedom is. Personally, I don't feel that the story that hides various gameplay elements for new players has been very well encapsulated. The issue doesn't really present itself as much unless you're a new player, and it only gets worse with every expansion. In a perfect world, the game would give you the freedom to choose between leveling through dungeons, leveling in the open world with action driven mini stories of their own, or leveling through the text driven main story. I just think it was bad design to put a gun to every player's head and tell them you're going to like it that way or you can leave.