Then I seem to misunderstand. Though how long was each person playing, if I may ask? Because "not long" at all can be skewed. I remember one small FC I was part of took a good few weeks to reach rank 8 because everyone involved could only play a few hours at a time. And even then, a lot of people don't really want to do that grind again when there's a bunch of other grind activities they need/want to do. Otherwise the airship parts argument wouldn't be very "valid" either.

Either way, more power to the FC's that can and are willing though.