i tried out the auto leveling trick and it's wonderful! right now i'm at work while my characters are busy killing ghasts. lol.

Im glad you enjoy it, but it kinda defeats the purpose for me.
I enjoy going out and training myself and enjoying the gameplay on my own.
Auto Leveling doesnt let you do that, and things will become too easy.
I enjoy the challenge of the game, but I can see where you may use auto leveling.(i.e. Yiazmat)

I'm with Lyude_7, though I've chimed in about this on another thread. I'm somewhere around 113 hours into the game and haven't been to Draklor yet - this is b/c I spend tonnes of time leveling up, procuring gil, figuring out where espers are, fighting them, and deciphering where the sidequests are and how to do them. In my mind I owe it to myself to earn everything I get - by doing the auto-level "trick" I'd be cheating myself and basically saying "that 113 hours I've spent playing so far was pissed away b/c I could simply have done this trick and plowed through everything".

In Agent's words, "to each his own"...it's just not for me.