It's not a grind.

Let me name a few things from FFXI that doesn't even come close to anything of grind level in FFXIV.

Relic weapons- you needed tons of byne bills to even finish this, our shell took 4 years, in FFXIV already have it.
Mythic weapons - can't do them alone and have a LS and farm like a psycho
Levels before abyss which were level max was 75, I remember the days of halls of the gods nightmares death and bored out of my mind.
Farming Gil slow.

I could keep going, nothing in FFXIV is the same as FFXI except some monsters and few similar things.

But as for mechanics gameplay nope.