When FFXI launched in North America, it already had an expansion. I couldn't access the expansion jobs without going through a whole bunch of hoops. Granted, they weren't as many hoops as doing the entirety of the XIV storyline, but it's not like all of the content was available to everyone the moment they logged in. Expansions are additions to main content. If new players want to start, they do the old content, then the new content. It's not that insane.
The ilevel is almost solved by the soldiery bonuses that players get just doing the dungeons for the main story. Tons of soldiery, buy the gear, get the ilevel, keep storying?
Hopefully, the devs and whoever else in charge are listening to the grumbling (not here, no doubt, but I assume this isn't an isolated discussion) and have plans for how to make the transition into new content smoother for certain groups of people, or will implement adjustments as problems arise. But for the vast majority who are expanding the content they already play and have been playing (and aren't playing alts because alts aren't the norm), expectation of having finished certain story chapters is not at all odd or bad.
The ilevel is almost solved by the soldiery bonuses that players get just doing the dungeons for the main story. Tons of soldiery, buy the gear, get the ilevel, keep storying?
Hopefully, the devs and whoever else in charge are listening to the grumbling (not here, no doubt, but I assume this isn't an isolated discussion) and have plans for how to make the transition into new content smoother for certain groups of people, or will implement adjustments as problems arise. But for the vast majority who are expanding the content they already play and have been playing (and aren't playing alts because alts aren't the norm), expectation of having finished certain story chapters is not at all odd or bad.