Great review. One that shows you actually gave the game the time it needed to properly review.
I have a feeling the other "review" threads were just alt accounts of those complaining about the MSQ job unlocks.

As for Raiding, Not sure if you've discovered it yet, But you can use the Duty Finder to do the old Binding Coil of Bahamut while syncing your level and item level down to minimum required.
This will let you experience the Raid mostly as it was originally intended outside of some generic nerf/fixes they made during 2.x.

I highly recommend you try and get a group together to do a full Coil run, as the Story there (While Side Story) is actually really good. Not to mention smexy gear for glamour

I only bring this up because you didn't mention having done Coil at all, just Alexander. As a former WoW player (7 years. RDruid<3) who quit for the same reason you did, this feature made me really bloody happy, As i was always kind of upset i never got to do the old BWL or AQ when it was proper content. And its just not the same steamrolling it at max level :<