I will make one last analogy before I give up and let this thread die (if that's even possible):

Food and Shelter are two fundamentals to life here on Planet Earth, yet I have to work at a job (and do things I don't want to do) to earn a paycheck so that I can buy food and pay for shelter. Unless I want to live in a Homeless Shelter (again), which I do not want to, I need to work for everything I need and for everything I want.

Nothing is handed to me in life and I don't expect it to be. Life is a challenge and it needs to be in order to be worth living.

Nothing should be handed to me in a game either. I expect challenge and even being forced to do things I'ld rather not do. I don't want to kill Ifrit but I will if he drops epic gears and/or I have to fight him to proceed in the Mission Storyline.
I don't want to level Carpenter but I will if that is the only way I can get an Epic Materia Encrusted BowHarp (for my Barcher) ;>P or if there was some epic cutscene that you only get if you lvl a DoH/L to r50 then I will either live without that CS or I will rank a craft to cap so I can experience everything.

Bottom line is we all gotta do what we gotta do to get the things we want in life and in our games.

FFXIV needs to be challenging in order to be worth playing.