Well you are going to be really upset once you get to ishgard and find out you have 30 more hours of story before you get to endgame then... so you still won't be able to do any content with your friends. Perhaps they should just start people at level 60 and you can just skip the entire story?

Honestly the journey to end game is the best part. Once you get there the real monotony begins. If you think the patch stories are unnecessary wait until you try and get a relic. =D

I think perhaps this might not be the game for you. Or maybe it is. Who knows. Either way you still have a long way to go and an even longer way after that if you plan on doing extreme level and savage content. Good luck.