The leveling grind has moved largely away from FATEs and more towards dungeons. (FATEs still give good XP, as they did before, but dungeons give much better XP than before, so they've become the focus.) There has also been more daily/weekly repeatable content added. Overall, I think there's a bit better variety of activities, which helps it seem less grindy, at least for leveling.

(I won't comment on end-game gear grind, as I'm not into that part.)