I know ARR was cut down but it really needs more done with it.

[Jeeqbit]

So why couldn't we just trim ARR even more? Less MSQ and more gameplay will be closer to expected MMORPG experience.[ This means that players will gradually get used to cutscenes and other story elements, instead of being blasted with unrelenting stream of story that they're very likely not used to.

This game is story-heavy and blasting them with story is giving them a good idea of what to expect for the next few hundred hours. Even after they have completed it all, whenever new content is released, every single new feature or content has story attached to it and if they can handle ARR they then they will be able to handle patch story at the max level. Maybe it is a good thing to filter out the people who can't handle this.

I was probably not even level 10 before I gave up, game was just giving me endless stream of badly animated, non-voiced cutscenes that I didn't care about

The animations are not great, but they are far better than many games that came before it. Of course, there were some games around ARR release that had better animations, but game animations were always not perfect and in many cases far worse. The breathing and idle animation of my character seems really good for example and that is poor in most games that I played before 2013.

first thing I want in new game is to check gameplay, and if I like it, I'll keep going and slowly get invested in a story, not other way around.

Opposite way round to me.

What would you do to ensure the person who asks "How do I get to Titan? Pretty please? < bats eyelids >" is worth your time? Especially since, as you learn at the end, the members of the Company of Heroes have sworn not to divulge the information to someone who is deemed unworthy by any member of the Company.

The issue is that you already beat Ifrit, so you already have experience taking down a primal and don't necessarily need their advice. If it was your first primal fight it would make more sense.