I don't completely disagree with the OP, but he's not right on the mark. I do disagree with the second post though. I thought the "pull mob to camp" style grind was absolutely horrendous. The grind in XIV seems to be the, "run laps in a circuit". It may be similar but to me it's a world of difference. It actually requires everyone to be there.

The reason I don't completely disagree with the OP is that he's only for multiple ways to level. Surprisingly enough, you never had to grind in XI. Later in XI's life I started a new character and would only level it when I would play with two other people I introduced to the game. What we would do is get a list of quests to run each day, then find the most efficient path to complete those quests. I honestly could say not only did we level fairly quickly, it was only a 3 person party, and we never did the "grind" as we were always en route to a quest objective. I honestly think the game was designed in that way. If you look at the where the mob distributions in each zone and kept track of when and where you needed to fight mobs of a similar level, you ended up going to Jeuno with exp as a biproduct, not carefully sneaking your way through a dangerous zone you weren't ready for.

It's people who let everyone else figure out "the most efficient way to level" and wait for them to post their method somewhere. Sadly, that's a very large part of the XIV community. The fact remains that there are very many different ways to level. Just not, quickly. To some though, quickly isn't necessarily efficiently. I plan on doing Toto-Rak runs as soon as I'm 25 on my CON. That's better than a mindless grind and more efficient because I'm getting more than SP. I'm also getting access to gear and training how to fight tougher monsters in a light party setting. When I'm not doing Toto-Rak, I'll be doing leves, task board turn ins, quests, and company quests for SP.

The option to grind should still be there, but I agree it shouldn't be the only means of SP gain. Don't let the community decide how you play the game. The armoury gives enough freedom for you to figure out your own way. The game is in its infancy and there is still plenty enough stuff out there to figure out for yourself. It's up to each individual whether or not they want to waste their time on a classic grind when there are various ways to get SP and also accomplish other tasks simultaneously.