I agree with this 100%!! They should definitely make the questing process more fun and interesting in FFXIV, but please don't be saying that FFXI's minor quests were better.
Yeah, a few of them had tiny cutscenes like the Star Onion Brigade, but even that quest chain had TONS of tedious running around from point A to point B, killing mob X for item Y; uninspired bland pointless MMO quest crap.
Not to mention the horrible, repetitive, unrewarding reputation grind in FFXI, where you turn in the same quests over and over and OVER literally HUNDREDS of times to make any progress. I wanted to play a THF/NIN in FFXI but I quit when I found out I had to grind Norg/Tenshodo reputation by turning in over 100 unstackable Yagudo Necklaces just to get my ninjutsu spells!!!! With my lack of inventory space that would have taken weeks of dedicated, extremely repetitious and boring farming and running around.
Looking at it that way, FFXIV's minor quests are quite an improvement and a lot more rewarding for the time and effort you put in. FFXIV's quests aren't on par with the cutting edge revolutionary 2012 standard of GW2, but they're an improvement from FF11.
Give Yoshi-P some time, and they'll get even better.