Summoner's probably a bad example for what you are trying to say, seeing as fame was just to start the quest, the quest itself was a separate achievement, and then there was primal collecting, either you knew a buddy who could or you yourself could solo the true primals, or you had to level to 20 to fight the lowbie versions by yourself
I mean sure, activating the quest to become a summoner required the challenge of fame as you call it, but once you got past that as a magic using job you had a lot more effort in store to actually be effective, kinda similar to BLU, not like you could buy all those spells, and for the jobs which primarily had purchasable spells, you had to be able to make money in order to do so
Wanting to be a mage in XI was an effort in of itself, fame was a barrier to beginning that effort, not the effort itself.