Nice write up!

A nice idea for new players, that could help with your first complaint: When selecting a class, let the player battle dummy mobs at level 50. Then once they are happy they could continue on to begin the game (and the subsequent cutscenes). I think it'd be nice to see what job you'd like to level up first, and avoid your first complaint (which I think is completely valid unless you're dead sure on your starting class).

Then it's really just about doing everything on the one character since you can change jobs at will after level 10 (so long as you have the weapon).