It's fine to enjoy quests, exploring, gathering, etc but dislike dungeons. It's a valid opinion. It always seems to trigger dozens of these replies "this is an mmo. m is multiplayer. go play a different game." We don't need to be this dismissive of people. Yes there is a linear progression in this game. At some points you're asked to do a certain dungeon once ever, then you continue onward to more solo stuff.

I agree that MMOs should be very open with multiple ways to progress. Lots of people dislike the msq for various reasons like forced grouping, questing, cutscenes, etc. People join MMOs for various reasons and there may be certain kinds of content they are not interested in. FF XIV was designed with that msq backbone being mandatory and it would be difficult to change.

People are less hostile once you have your footing and are not slowing them down. It's a shame how some new players are treated but if you can get past the hurdles there's a great experience waiting.