Haven’t played since CoP, is the game so entirely different that I probably won’t enjoy it?

I come from the times of camping Sozu Rogberry and waking up at 2AM for a Faf/Nid camp vs. ton of JP players on Titan server. I love the grind and clearly love suffering. At a glance, it seems like the game is a bit to “easy” to level up and reach end-game. Am I wrong? I got the free trial just to log in and go kill a rock lizard. I plan on buying the full game tomorrow and giving it a go. Do you think I’ll be wasting my time if the “good ole days” is what I’m really after?

::edit:: I’ve heard of private servers but at the same time, I feel like population might be a problem there but I’m not positive. Such a social game, lack of players to party with scares me.