Why should I be excited for Grind Parties?

[Commat]

Why shouldn't they put meat around the grind? What kind of moron developer WANTS to separate leveling from the game's story progression if they can do both at once? What benefit does it offer?

For both XI and now XIV I could never grasp this. I understand it for other MMOs but for a Final Fantasy game to revolve around grinding and have story as a small back drop is insane.

Sure, XI rewarded the grind with fantastic stories but it still was not worth it to most FF players as was apparent by its low sub count compared with FF's normal fan base.

And whats the deal with people saying other FF's had grind? for what, A few hours max? The comparative grind between 11 and 12 is so enormous that saying 12 had a grind at all is silly in comparison even if you maxed out 300 hour'd 12.