I didn't get the joy of doing it back when it was capped. :( I solo'd all of it except the Tenzen fight.. but even then a War just FC'd them to death >.>
It was for the challenge. The challenge being unable to fight and travel at the peak of your strength. Having to know proper tactics and setups for the situation presented. Heh, it was part of the reason a lot of people didn't level a ton of jobs. Had to keep cap gear around if you wanted to progress/help someone progress. A bit of that can be considered tedium, but that's why everything felt contrived I guess. Course it isn't a challenge's job to be convienent. It was what it was though. The most challenging storyline in FFXI.
Most people aren't too fond of challenges though. Gets in the way of an easy relaxed fun I guess. I like a challenge. The ending COP missions were still decently rough after the cap release, but we got our level increased too. Blah blah blah.