And to further explain what I was talking about:

Level sync was introduced in FFXI to allow high level players to join up with their low level friends and play together without much hassle, and without the high level player 'ruining' the gaming experience of the low level player. The problem arose because veteran players found out that you can get "better" (it's arbitrary) exp by syncing to a low level than to go through the normal leveling process.

That, in my opinion, is damaging to the overall experience of the game. Even more damaging than making leveling from 1 to 50 a breeze (and about on the same level as having PLing be the norm).

Other MMOs have existed without level sync and never had the problem of high level player playing with low level friend because it was extremely easy to just start a new character with fresh stats and everything. In FFXI and FFXIV, if you've already taken all your classes to high levels (or even just the ones that you like to play), it becomes much harder to join your low level friend. That's why this is a problem in FFXI/FFXIV and not other MMOs.