MMO's suck because they have to be designed with a level of grinding. Proper MMO-s hold the player's attention for hundreds or even thousands of hours. But it is almost impossible to create so many different levels, enemies and quests, so that you always find new things along that 1000 hours. The only option is to implement grinding into the design, so you have to replay quests and kill enemies all the time, to get new gear and level up your character. And it makes the game soooo boring. A good story, or well implemented social element are the only things which make this grinding bearable, but if someone is not looking for those (I for example don't want other players around me, fuck you, I want to experience the story, not going through the same raid for the 10th time), then MMOs are games with terrible mechanics.
You are misusing "grinding", like most people. Is playing Counter Strike or DOTA2 grinding? Is playing poker or pool grinding? Its the same thing every time, for tens of thousands of hours!!
Its only a grind if its something you do braindead, without liking it, for the reward at the end. If the gameplay loop itself is compelling, or the rewards come frequently, its not really grinding in the original way the term was used for video games.
For example, in the most popular MMORPG in the west World of Warcraft, you don't "grind" to get from level 1 to 20, you do quests. These are compelling, and you do them because you want to. It may be grinding on your second or third go through them, on alternative characters. Then grinding concerns are legit.