Personally, I dislike speed runs for the reasons that the OP raised. While I understand their place in the game is primarily for a test of skill and achievement, what this actually translates to is players forcing others on to other jobs that are considered optimal for the task (i.e all Black Mages to sleep, or all Warriors to run through).

And while that may be normal even for a none-speed run, what becomes annoying is when a party will constantly restart the dungeon whenever a mistake is made that could deem a speedrun unfeasible. Countless times I've been in a party of speedrun obsessed players who will restart and kick players who cannot keep up with the speedrun; an aspect of gameplay that is easily forgotten after the fact, and is just as easily ruined by server lag wherein parties get stuck frozen for long periods of time before a cutscene should begin.. a cutscene that everyone must skip and never enjoy.

The unfortunate reality is that SE continues to put hard work into small details in their game, and then creates gameplay elements wherein players must skip these details. There is a serious problem in the design of this game when a timer begins as soon as an intro cutscene begins, because you cannot skip said cutscene until it has loaded enough to begin. Why must I mash the keyboard in an attempt to skip such a beautiful piece of cinematic art so that I can keep up with my party, as they begin charging as fast as possible to make up the half a minute that has already been lost just trying to skip the scene.