Forced random servers are one of many interesting quirks that FFXI has. There are a lot of things that FFXI does differently than most MMO's. People who haven't really played, however, generally over-estimate how much of an inconvenience the whole "World Pass" thing is.
I could afford a World Pass, at the price it was going at, within a couple hours of serious, actual play (not your newbie wandering around your city, I mean)...as soon as I learned how to use the Auction House, and what exactly I could do with all those Earth Crystals (crafting was a mysterious, veiled practice to me at the time), it was fine.
Of course, I didn't actually NEED to buy a pass until I had already played for a few months, but it was still cheapo enough to afford on my first day.
The interface was a far more strange and difficult oddity to get used to, for me.