Sorry if I sound like an ass, but I'm just being honest.

I see no problem in gating Ishgard behind the story. This is a story driven mmo AND it's Final fantasy, to expect little to no story like WoW is just funny to me. As the story progresses so does the game, so it makes sense. And to say "Welcome to Disneyland without a ticket" for new players just because they want the new jobs right away is just as "unfair" to the current players that have gone through the story to get there. Not to mention each job has a reason to be in Ishgard. What reason do they have to start in Eorzea? Those jobs are specifically meant to be in Ishgard for the lore they have. There is no valid reason to start in Eorzea. Also seeing as how the story CLEARY states Ishgard is too busy to truly forge the alliance with Eorzea. but oh yeah...that's right...you need to progress to find that out. Hm...interesting...

Sure, it sometimes sucks to progress in the story to get what you want, but such is life. You don't always get what you want. But hey, at least getting the job at that point is a nice reward. I'd rather have a reward over a hand out. People can accept it and move on or quit, it is what it is. And I read somewhere (how true this is, I don't know) that Yoshi stated 50-60 is about as long as 1-50. So to worry about hitting 51-53 during those quests is a waste of energy, put it somewhere else and wait to see what is released