It is indeed possible to enjoy the endgame by itself. But a word of caution needs to be issued. You only get 3 major endgame content patches (savage tiers, 5 if you don't count ultimate in those) every two years. And although there are some other content patches for less difficult content, the vast majority of patches will be story related.
All that to say that even if you, like me, are mainly interested in endgame, there's real value in following the story to the end. Think of it as an investment, you slogg through it now so that you can enjoy the patches more once at cap.