Forced to finish Before the Fall, dumb design.

[Mwynn]

The Main Story (2.0) takes 2-3 Days if you start fresh with tons of Grinding.
I have done it in a Week if not even less.
2.1 ~ 2.5 takes a Day if you know what to do else you can expect 2-3 Days if you won't fail Duties or you're doing something else wrong. (Damn you SoF Pre-Nerf <_<)

Without the Story at all, what are you playing for? There are no Instances to unlock, No Primals, No Coils. You have to Quest here else you will not even leave your Starter City ...

I could Qoute several People but .... if you play FFVII you ain't on Second Disc at the beginning, right? If you play FFX, you ain't on the Airship before Bevelle, right?
Final Fantasy was always Story Driven, hence why People love the older ones and FFXIV ARR does it right.

(INB4 someone says, you should enter T13 immediately being Level 1 *LOL*)

Without a Story... I couldn't imagine the Game at all, it would honestly suck.