I doubt you can extrapolate from your experiences on a single MMORPG to the industry as a whole. Grind may well be intentional in your case, or in WoW; but in (many) other MMORPGs, the designers put a lot of work into reducing grind. Grind is always a double-edged sword, and rather than focus on grinding for grinding's sake, I recommend you focus on creating a compelling gaming experience first; worry about metastructure when you've managed to do that.
I never said I focused on grinding for grinding's sake.
Our game is a parody, and our main focus is on creating a universe that is funny and engaging. It would simply be bad game design if we didn't recognize that grinding is part of the MMORPG experience.
You obivously know this because you used the word "reducing" when referring to it.
