Seeing your post cheered me up, even if it seems the opinion is grossly outvoted. It's so wonderful to see people actually care. I agree fully, but a simple thumbs up won't suffice
I came to FFXIV hoping to relive the days I was known as one of the best support players on my server while meeting skilled players, and instead everyone has 50 in everything and zergs everything down and apply very little thought to anything.
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However, it is unfortunate, but the people saying the lack of content justifies the ease of the grind are probably right, painful as it may be to admit. Back in the day they just made the grind unreasonably slow (RagnarokOnline) to cover this issue. Like everything else, it's sad to see that people do insist that faster/easier > enduring the flaws. It'd be nice to see more people say "fix the flaws, I'm in no rush. I'm here for the experience of a lifetime." In the case of FFXI players, we've waited this long.