can we talk about this?

[Purrfectstorm]

The Zodiac quest is supposed to be a long grind and give people something to do. If it was too easy to get Myth, people would complete the quest too quickly. Also, you're not taking into account that players will get roulette bonuses to Myth and that the beast tribes give Myth. I know, relying on these every day makes the Zodiac quest drag out so in the end, you have the decision FFXIV presents with many other types of content: you can do things the most time-efficient way (but have it take weeks to get the end result) or you can chase the end result now.

One way to illustrate this decision is in leveling up your character. To keep it simple, let's say that it took you 1 hour per level by dungeon/fate grinding to get to 50, that's 49 hours. Now let's say that you did roulette every day and gained a level in 30 minutes. You would only have to spend 24.5 hours but it would take a lot longer.

You're essentially paying extra of a resource to have what you want now. It's not just getting the Myth that works like this, it's also choosing to get Zodiac at all. It may take less time playing to get a Leviathan weapon, provided you know the fight, are geared enough, and have a group, but if you don't have those things going for you, you may actually have to wait longer.

I do agree with you about potential Brayflox HM problems though and think this could be easily resolved by either adding Myth at the end or reallocating the Myth from the 1st 2 bosses to the end. Keep in mind that without any adjustments, there is still the leave early penalty timer, you miss out on a chance for the baby opo drop (goes for 300k or more on my server), and you don't get gil or commendations. It may be that it's not that bad of a deal to stick it out another 3-5 min (although admittedly that does add up after 200+ runs...)

Other miscellaneous things I'd like to add are:

I don't think the Atma grind is that bad. It took me around 15-20 hours, longest Atma took 6 hours. It's about what I'd expect for getting a solid endgame weapon without having to beat any difficult content. Again, it's a trade-off. You're trading difficulty for time.

For many players, this is a no-brainer, since they can't even get past Titan EX (heck, I haven't even gotten past Titan EX and I know the fight like the back of my hand, never get hit by anything, etc. but finding another 7 people who can play perfectly is just a miserable experience in my opinion). Keep in mind, you can't just think of the time spent doing fights but also getting members, reforming after every ragequit, learning fights, etc.

Also, some people just like to be able to have some solo grind content. I think of the Zodiac quest as something purely optional and I think options are nice. Grinding Fates is the worst part but it also makes the Atma notification message really exciting and satisfying.