I don't mind the first step being fairly short if there isn't interesting content in place to actually do to instead of what the alternative has been.

Like if we had to do what we did in Heavensward to even start, which for those who weren't around for the Anima weapon, was grinding three crystals with awful drop rates from fates in every Heavensward zone (this took like 12 hours) and then having to do a synched run of every dungeon from A Realm Reborn 2.4 through to the level 60 Heavensward dungeons. It was the definition of busy work.

While I certainly have my complaints about Eureka Anemos as well (the grind for the weapon there was considerable), at least it was novel content at the time.