God, try playing 2 or 3 classes at once then come back.You will realise that getting multiple classes together to 50 is faster than 1 class at a time to 50.Looking at your sig tells me that that is exactly what you have been doing- ARC50 then ranking up LNC...

the system was in place to stop you surpassing everyone else in terms of rank, but let you build up your character with other classes to combine them into 1.This is so more people are around the same rank and so they can party together.You can tell hardcore players from casual by the variety of skills they use,giving hardcore players an advantage.
Looking at the SP boosts now, it's very possible to get to R50 in a week or two with the surplus system gone. Theres NO way I , and many people would want that. The casual players would just cry.

Alot of people here are saying people quit because of surplus. From my experience, people are quitting because they have hit R50.Theres nothing more to do (lack of content but more will certainly come) and they don't feel like starting another class. One of the main attractive things about FFXI and FFXIV that makes them different from the other MMOs was how you could change classes. I'm glad that surplus is in place to stop people from quitting faster than they should because it lets them try out new classes before getting to 50 and saying it was boring.