But it should be. The best analogy for it would be fighting games:

Online play and ladders are fine and all, but participating in your local community events and going to regional tournaments -- where you're engaging with people and forming friendships/rivalries -- that's the best part of playing a competitive game. Your team, your familiar regional faces, that one person you lose to so hard that you make a goal out of beating them, it's all the best part of playing seriously.

If you're dedicated enough to come to a forum for FFXIV PvP and discuss it, you're dedicated enough to find a community to play the game in.