4) Do you realize now, that gating the main story behind grouping in such a toxic community divided is a bad idea?
People are avoiding new players like they are lepers, leaving the duty finder and roulettes as soon as they see so called "under geared" characters, even though they surpass the require item level sometimes by even i10 levels.
I'm not asking for all content to be easy and a walk in the park. I'd love to see very challenging content, but not tied to the main story that's been building up ever since I first logged in back in 2011.
Perhaps you could create more events like FFXI's Dynamis, which was optional, but required so many people, even new players at end level could participate and learn from others.