I agree with OP, especially having seen the daily complaint coming from my server's novice network: FFXIV really needs an abridged MSQ.

No need to censor anything or have players miss out on content, either. Most of it, especially in the early days, is filler whose only purpose is to drag things for longer, which is OK when the game is new but not so much when you need to catch up, and this filler is most of the time inconsequential.
Or to put it in other words, having to go sniff chocobo rears doesn't really add anything of importance to the plot.

I really like the direction they're going with the latests patches; have only half a dozen quests per patch, make them ALL relevant to the main plot, and everything else is a side-quest that you can do at your own pace. If they could go back and make so the old MSQ behaves the same way it'd be perfect I think.