ARR isn't that bad, it's just that people seem so laser-focused on blitzing through MSQ as fast as possible just to get out of it that it becomes fatiguing. This exacerbates the feeling of being incessantly ping-ponged back and forth from Waking Sands, because you level so fast now that you can basically just spam MSQ obsessively and ignore everything else. If you just relax and treat it like an actual game, rather than one big miserable "Newb Tutorial Island," it's still a pretty good time. Take a breath and go try out some crafting or Golden Saucer or something. Or that Job quest you forgot about from 10 levels ago.