To the ones bashing the OP over XI

you're wrong, RoZ released 11 month after XI release (16th of may '02) in JP (April 17th '03). At that point everything up to The Hall of the Gods was out (pre-sky area) July the 17th exactly 3 month after, they opened up sky, so 14 month in the game.
XI released in US at the 28th of october '03 (PC) and in the EU at the 17th September '04 (PC) - PS2 release (US only) was the 23rd of March '04. All three dates mark the Release date of RoZ in those regions.
CoP was finally released international at September 21st with EU getting a headstart at September 17th 2004 - That is 16 Month after XI was officially released and marked the second Expansion. Finally at the 24th of February 2005 Al'Taieu, or sea, was opened or: 21 month after XI release

At 3.0 official release we were at month 21 in ARR

So... please, get your facts straight when indeed the OP is right when he writes:

after all in this part of XI's life cycle you had dynamis, sky / sea, HNM's.
On Topic:

I feel you, and it feels like a revamped 2.x without a good crafting/gathering system at this point. But until im capped 60 in all classes ill be fine. The grind keeps my brain from realizing that i dont like the weekly caps ^^