I think there used to be a time when games were made to be fun, not leeches.
Like most MMOs today, the user base is extremely juvenile. Whether you actually want to party or not is irrelevant, as you are forced to team up with 14 year-olds that can't spell, think, or press a button at the right time. If someone leaves, you're stuck sitting around waiting to track down another person. If you aren't at least level 60, this will take an eternity, if you even have a party in the first place. Now, I would think that if you wanted to spend money waiting, you would go to a theme park, a movie theater, or a restaurant on Friday night. Any of these activities would be more worthwhile in the long-run than playing a broken game.
To make a long rant short, this game was playable, albeit a reluctant play, when it was new and there were plenty of new players. Now, everyone is high level, and no one wants to go through the hell of Crawler's Nest again. It is now broken unless you buy a character that is high enough level, or decide you want to limit yourself to the single job of Beastmaster. Since there are much better choices out there (like WOW), I suggest pretending this game isn't, and look forward to the release of FFXII which will hopefully redeem this series.