Not to rain on FFXIV, as I say I've not played it so I can't judge it properly, but I can certainly say that the cons do not apply to all or even most MMOs. The very reason they're such a big deal is because they are so elementary.

Absolutely miserable interface - Not true in ANY paid MMO I can bring to mind outside of the FFs and EVE Online. And EVE mostly takes getting used to, it does what it does because it has to, not because they decided that dragging a skill onto a hotbar was a bad idea. Maybe The Saga of Ryzom too, but even that wasn't close to how bad this sounds.
Does a poor job of communicating important information - Can't really think of any MMOs which fall down here, except perhaps EVE.
Limited questing means you're always looking for something fun to do - Though quite a few MMOs have a lack of stuff to do around launch, this is the first game I've ever heard of which seriously lacks quests. What is usually missing is stuff like crafting, or some NPC quest-giving faction isn't yet active, or a zone isn't complete. I've yet to see anyone outside the hardcore complain that in ordinary play an MMO lacks ordinary quests, except a few small-time ones that folded after a few months.
Everything about the economy stinks - The only remote parallel I can think of is City of Heroes, which didn't have an economy at launch, because you just earned everything yourself and trading didn't exist. There isn't an MMO on earth that has avoided problems with its economy, but they do tend to avoid problems like omitting Auction Houses and so forth.
Every aspect of the game is filled with dumb obstacles - This one is pretty subjective depending on what you consider 'dumb obstacles', but from the content of the review this does seem to step outside the bounds of ordinary MMO barriers to progress.