Agreed, a grind was turned into a mind numbingly boring grind. Just the kind of game I was looking for.

Seriously, if you want to end speed runs, that's fine and honestly it's something I'd prefer. However, this was hamfisted and poorly thought out. If you are just going to incorporate gated grinds in the game, drop the sub, add a cash shop and make it a F2P - because that's exactly where the current iteration of the system belongs.