If I were to pick out a bigger issue in FFXIV:ARR when it comes to story, it would not be "the amount of filler" but rather "the stories involved in the filler should be sidequests, not main story."

There is a lot of filler that has nothing to do with the overall storyline, and it does annoy me. Given that there are a number of generals we have to take out at the end, why is it that 90% of their storylines are fleshed out the second before you kill them? Even the 'big bad guy' doesn't really have much of a feeling from me. The storyline leading up to the main fights needed to be a lot more involved. I'm talking run-ins with the generals on frequent occasions, a la the FFVII Turks. Why didn't we attempt to fight them on numerous occasions? I can't think of many bosses in games that you have so little gametime with prior to their "epic battles" (which in some cases were not epic at all).