As a new player that really likes this game ...

[Snow_Princess]

Because a lot of this community really does like the Final Fantasy lore. A lot of us have played most of the FF games. This is not a WoW clone and those who want that aren't going to find it here.

you do not need to block access. The quests can be easily be side quests, or at least a lot of busy MSQ quests made into side quests. SE made a big mistake in making the MSQ blocking, and FFXI does not even do it this badly (it blocks different stuff in parallel, it would be like being able to do SB because your 61 without doing HW quests) So I am shocked why people are shocked when people come to this game and complaining about it, it is unexpected and bad game design. (In the sense it is appealing to a small group of people, it can be more streamlined to appeal to more people, more money, etc...)

There is no warning whatso ever of the massive gating fact other then NOW being a hint that you can buy skip it. So now some will feel they do the blocking for cash shop exploitation.