Well, trying to reach a consensus between both parties got us where we are right now, not satisfying either.
Let me take this quote from takaroku as an illustration of my point:
Well I know a few still going strong-
Well I know a few...
a few
The players who advocate a stupidly long grind are the Minority. The vocal minority, mind you, because most players aren't like me, who would wanna argue why everything they say is outrageous and wrong. Argumentation seems impossible considering that any time you criticize them they literally just accuse you of insults, they never read what you have to say, etc. So players just give up and move on to other games. I see potential in this game and I want to see it improve, so I stick around.
Anyways, these guys are in the minority because they have no lives, no jobs, no responsibilities, no relationships, no duties to society. They can just stick in their mothers basement and play DBOG all day long without a care in the world, so OF COURSE they would argue for a long grind, its not like they have anything better to do.
But unlike those players, I have schooling. I'm majoring in Biology and have to devote a large portion of my time actually studying for exams, instead of playing video-games covered in Cheeto's crumbs and drinking mountain dew all day. I have responsibilities to my friends and family, I have to make sure my GPA stays above a certain range, I have to ensure that I have time to look for internship opportunities, etc.
And that's just me. Hundreds of other players are in similar situations, where they don't have time to grind on a stupid mmorpg all day. You say that making the game easier makes it boring- False. Because making the game "easier" just means that people like me who don't have any basements to live in can still experience the game without having to devote an absurd amount of time to it. It makes the game more accessible and by extension more popular. And its not like the changes anyone advocates are so extreme. Its a matter of changing a 10 to a 20, or a 90 to an 80. Such minor changes can result in huge differences.
Its people who have no lives who're so triggered by the thought of a changing metagame.