The game as it currently is, is too top heavy. All the cool stuff (even job AF is toward endgame, which is probably what most of the returning players are interested in) is at endgame, so if you make it take forever to level you will have a hard time retaining any "newer generation" MMO players.

I believe the pace is designed to allow friends of "veteran" players to catch up with minimal hassle which is why PLing is allowed to a certain extent.

The "journey" is pretty much a zombie zergfest with 7 other people thrown together or boring leves that waste your time with fleeing mobs/make you sit there for 15 minutes. Time to go grind on FFXIV's version of the robber crab: raptorz. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯