It's not inaccurate to say that the story presents a very real obstacle that blocks new players from end game content.

Consider an MMO player who starts playing the game after hearing great things from his friends. He pays $60 for the complete edition and starts playing. After a few quests he takes a look online to see what the fastest way to reach end game (where his friends are). Imagine his shock to learn that he has 694 story quests, plus another 30 or so class quests before he can do ANY of the content that he wants to participate in. MMOs are known for the grind, but even so that's a huge 100+ hour requirement that can't be avoided. There's no alternative leveling process. You can't do things your own way. SE tapes you to the train and railroads your entire progress to cap.

The good news is that there's a level boost for $25. It brings you up to the end of the previous expansion. That's fairly standard for MMOs now. The bad news is that it does nothing for that mountain of quests you have. You can skip those too, but you'll need to pay another $25, plus you still have no choice but to do the 106 quests from the latest expansion.

So here are your choices as a new player:
1) Spend $60 and 100-150 hours following an undeviating path to reach end game
2) Spend $110 and 20-40 hours following a segment of that path to reach end game

Both of those present massive obstacles to someone who isn't sure whether or not they'll enjoy end game, and the problem grows with every new expansion. When is it unreasonable to expect people to complete the story before they can participate in harder content? Clearly some people here don't think 700 quests is too much. What about next expansion when it reaches 850? Or 1000 in the expansion after that?

Why do we need to force people to go through the story? Why isn't someone allowed to level up by grinding dungeons or fates if that's what they want to do? With all the optional content in game, why aren't people allowed to say "no thanks, I'd rather do something else to level up"?

I enjoy the story on the whole and I don't want it removed from the game, but I can't understand why some people feel that it must be forced on everyone who plays the game. Unless something changes, the inflating obstacle to entry will gradually restrict the number of new players reaching end game.