I feel like there is a certain social aspect of a guided grind where everyone is working towards the same thing that "now I can grind what I want!" simply doesn't have. I mean, it is nice that you can do things such as Deep Dungeon or maps in order to get your relic, still I wish they could have made it so that these activities are included inside the relic chain without being as vague as "get tomes". My biggest social interactions in the game happened with the initial stages of relic grind or some other stupid grind (like Yokai fate event), there's a certain quality in doing things with everyone else and everyone chasing the same thing that was a core aspect of going after something in a game.
There's something about the game guiding you that I actively enjoyed towards the relic process. It wasn't always a 100% fun experience, but that's beyond the point because nothing is ever 100% fun all the time. I don't really see where's the appeal of FFXIV simplying putting stuff where you can "complete doing whatever", the game is far from being a sandbox with a good deal of options at the level cap. If you choose to complete it by doing roulettes you'll most likely end up doing brayflox longstop, alexander and crystal tower for an entire week.
This huge aversion to the game saying "hey, DO X" like it's some sort of crime sounds so dramatic to me. "THE GAME IS FORCING ME TO DO X THINGY!!!" uh gurl, have you ever played games? That's, like, what they do. Also, in FFXIV it is sooo easy to simply ignore whatever they are proposing regardless, you are not obligated to do anything besides msq.
I also honestly don't understand the "not everything has to be a grind", that everyone loves to throw around because pretty much nothing is? Not everything has to be something extremely easy to catch-up just because you don't have time to play the game at the moment. When the game presented me with something I dislike, I just wait till it nerfs it and whoever actually want to give it their time are free to do so. Unless we're talking about some big achievements, almost nothing in the game is a grind, the only thing that WAS in fact a grind was... well, the relic. A casual grind, even. Otherwise, the game simply lacks timesinks or anything that requires investiment besides the MSQ and most people play MMOs to feel a sense of progression and not simply, logging in and catching up as quickly as possible.
Imagine playing a game where the current content of the game is tailored towards people that don't want to sink any time at all into it and want, in fact, to play other games. Makes no sense. If you don't have time to play it, come back when it's nerfed and get your weapon.