I actually like leveling and gearing up. But I agree in many mmorpg it's a chore.

I'm sure there are people who like dailies/weeklies and I think that's fine. But personally If I want to kill a mob or do a challenge like raid or world boss, I want to be able to do it anytime and however many time in a day. I don't want to have to schedule my login time.

I also don't like that in many games the required grind for collectibles is designed to cater to those who will specialize in the few most profitable contents and then skip the rest by purchasing items from other players. I personally like doing every single content. I wish more games are designed so that the most efficient gameplay is casually playing a bit of every content instead of a lot of a single content.

I personally would keep gear and level progression but remove the artificial grind for basic gear. And maxing your gears doesn't have to always be about more damage/survivability. In an old game I used to play, there are super rare gear effects that remove the need of carrying certain consumables. Like some abilities require you to carry specific ammunitions. The ammunitions are cheap sold by npc vendors and you normally only need to restock every hour or so. But wearing the gear is just much more convenient. There's a super rare gear that gives you permanent movement speed buff. You can get the same buff alternatively by consuming a cheap food item. The effect doesn't stack but it's more convenient to wear the gear. You have fewer consumables to worry about, you have more inventory and action/skill bar space.