Damn good storytelling. This is SE and that is their forte.

By the way, none of my examples went against what our mindset of FF classes is. So I'm not sure where thats coming from.

Third, I don't think that telling capped players that they need to grind some more is bullshit. Merit points anyone? I think that if a new progression system is implemented, people will actually want to hang around with their capped class and rank it up in some ways, not only to do end game stuff. Of course that's only an opinion I can't speak for everyone.
Totally not the same thing. People without merits could still perform in end game events, just not as well as those that were fully merited. Every other proposal for this has pretty much said you cannot do any end game until you grind more because you have to level your title/spec/etc.

Look at this from a developer's perspective. Things will be balanced under the assumption that people will be playing with a Title or a Specialization. A person with a 50 Pugilist, while they may have some nice abilities, is essentially useless because Monk or whatever is what encounters are being designed around.

Current players, regardless of being guinea pigs, should not have to do too much extra shit to go back to doing end game stuff. Readjustments here and there sure, another grind? No way.