We should get exp boost in the game.

[Melichoir]

Ah, here it is. Let's drop the façade of those "poor little new players beaten down by the MSQ" and get to the real root of your post. It's not the new players playing the MSQ for the first time (when it's all new and exciting), it's people who choose to level multiple characters and are "forced" to see the MSQ over and over in order to do so that spawned this thread.

I do think this is part of it, but I dont think that many people actually run alts in this game to a serious degree. Hell, the alt that I do have I have specifically to reexperience the MSQ and be a bit cheese about it for fun(Try to level my alt as high as possible without progressing the MSQ, for example).

I think the bigger opposition towards mandatory MSQ tends to come from newer players who have migrated from WoW. Not all, and maybe not even a majority, but that is where Ive seen it from when its brought up. Typically it's cause those types are more used to how wow operates, where you participate in content as you see fit (and are used to speed leveling to max, power gearing, and then focusing on end game content.

There isnt anything wrong with this as a playstyle, but its not one that fits well into FFXIV as an MMO. Youre expected to experience the story. May not be your cup of tea, but thats the nature of the game and a big part of the draw. If you dont care about MSQ, just speed through text and skip cutscenes. The MSQ is long, but its not as long as people think it is if you just power through the content.

... still want there to be a voluntary function that makes MSQ optional and it's not because of alts, but because I want endgame to be (even) more populated and have more players enjoying the game I'm sinking most time in.

Ive been vocal about this in the past, but I dont want there to be an easy path to skipping MSQ because it trains players (particularly new ones) to treat the game in a fast food style of gameplay. There is no 'core' content. Just a bunch of things you do, you pick it up and dump it just as fast, and its all about 'End game' and nothing else. This also has the knock on effect that train players to have certain expectations, they will fall more into that sort of gameplay, and expect it overall. So in this case, make MSQ optional, Dont have the core, promote the idea that the goal of hte game is "Get Max Level to start having any fun" and players will expect it. Which means content and everything is altered to reflect that mindset youve trained players into.

The thing is , atleast from my perspective, the model exacerbates toxicity in player bases and detachment. You can have friends, but youre not really part of a larger whole. Youre just kinda...around other players, and not part of them as a larger community. Dont get me wrong, this was a thing in wow at one point in time (particularly with Horde V Alliance world pvp), but it's not the feeling I get anymore. What little there is feels...manufactured. Fake. Forced. Like the Devs are telling you that your part of something 'bigger' rather than players feeling like they are. In FFXIV, there is atleast one core thing that all players from Savage to beginner can kind of relate and bond over: MSQ. It's not always great, sometimes its dumb, sometimes its a slog, sometimes its excellent, and sometimes it's effing amazing - and that is something everything can relate over. This doesnt mean there isnt toxicity in the playerbase, or people who dont care, or the like, but there is something at its center. A central experience and overall concept. FFXIV isnt perfect, but the feel of it as an MMO is different from WoW, and I think that has a lot to do with how it's structured as an MMO with consideration to MSQ.