I'd like to bring up something i find interesting. If we look at the last players poll, a large amount of respondants replied that they we're atleast pleased with the current leveling speed which is slightly boosted.

Yoshi-P's comments on that we're quite interesting to me:

50% of you thought the pace of leveling was just about right, while 20% felt it was too fast. And then there was the 10% who had more to say on the matter.
For most MMOs, you might expect around 60-70% of players to respond with “too slow”, but as the current leveling speed for FFXIV is intentionally set at a higher pace, I’m fairly satisfied with these results.

Question 4 was for those of you who wished to further express your opinion. (And yes, I did read all of them even if we can’t print them all here!)
The most common response was that the lower levels were too slow, while the higher levels went by too fast. We have no plans to adjust the leveling speed for the current game, but we’ll certainly take these comments into consideration when tweaking the pace for version 2.0.
Of course any pool can have many unknowns that will effect an persons vote. Knowlage of PL (i thought it was a banable expoit when i started, because i had never seen any other game allow such a thing, and i ran like hell ^^) Party availability etc.

What i find interesting is Yoshi-P's expectation of "Usual" being much higher on too slow. And where the respondants actually placed. Now depending on SE's goals for leveling speed they may or may not lower the leveling speed. But i would caution any ority (majority or minority) on avoiding compromise.

I have no experience in FF11. But i've played other slow grind, enforced X time to skill up. Seperate skill % gains, quick to max style exp systems. But i think the most reasonable stance for myself is that we are atleast for the current player base around the sweetspot, plus or minus.

Myself i have no desire to see level cap become a gated community. And i appritate how SE designed Job quests to bring party play in for additions to your class instead of roadblocks.

I can understand the desire for a more enjoyable journey before "end game" but enjoyable does not need to = slow either.
Some games try to extend that "joy" by making for example 5 slots of gear and giving 1 piece per those five levels. Giving the slow leveling a sense of improvement by gradually increasing a characters power. But when you then hit the 6th level, you start replaceing what was, a set. And this continues sometimes causing some people to just want to get to the end so they can have their gear and keep it.

My main point is everyone is going to have a differing opinion on the speed to get to cap. And everyone is going to have a different opinion on what is fun on the journey there.

And also whatever speed you personally belive is the correct one, look at our current style of content, not the dificulty per say, but the changing class/job requierments from one to another and multiply your desired speed times 7. That is what you will be asking new players coming in to ultimately obtain. And thats just concidering the combat classes (ignoring the current needs for Hamlet.)

Tl;DR; Everyone wants a fun journey, but if the destination sucks, thats no fun either. Theres plenty of room for both without making the journey long and slow.