Suggestion [remove Aether Currents as a catch up mechanic]

[Xirean]

Lol. I *did* wade through nine years of content. It was mostly enjoyable--for me. But I also recognize that several of my friends simply do not have the patience to push past as much mandatory content as FF XIV has just to enjoy playing the game with me.

I don't think it is controversial at all to observe that, unlike other MMOs, FF is unusual in how much it requires players to grind through story just to unlock content. And I don't think it's unreasonable that some players don't want to have to play for 200-300 hours just to be able to participate at the current tier.

Then buy a skip? The vast majority of the community doesn't see the story as a grind at all. That's primarily why discussions about removing stuff tends to get met with backlash.