Good friend of mine and I finally installed and started playing this weekend, we've been quite enjoying ourselves.
I'm still not sure what to make of the guildleve system exactly, I think I like it though. I think people are making the mistake of assuming that the leves are the best/only way to progress your character though, which is very incorrect. They're more like WoW dailies than anything else; just some uncomplicated quests to make you some cash each day, with the added advantage of increased skillups and experience for the duration with the Guardian's Favor.
Crafting and harvesting are a bit monotonous. I don't mind the minigame control scheme but its still pretty time consuming because of the UI's delay from window to window. They're very rewarding though, and you can get started/progress really easily with the local levequests.
One major gripe is the removal of the Auction House and Bank. I guess logistically it seems like killing two birds with one stone and replacing them with the retainers sounds nice, plus no AH is going to really cripple gilsellers I'd think, but I don't know that it's worth the loss of functionality for players. Currently trying to find items you'd want in the market wards (huge mass of bazaar NPCs) is frustrating and inefficient and prices are very volatile.
I'm enjoying the combat mechanics and I think the UI is superior to FFXI's at the very least, it's much less cumbersome and more flexible. I kind of miss the job/subjob system though, but I understand that abilities learned by each class you level can be shared (to some extent?). I haven't leveled any other combat classes to find out yet.
On the plus side, if you register(ed) your game prior to 10/25 they're granting you an extra free month's play for all the negative feedback they've gotten. I think SE released it early but they'll get it right. If nothing else, we're having fun and I'm looking forward to going home tonight to do my leves and some more crafting