Some games are able to find the right balance like life choices, it can be a grind depending on how you play it, but the ability to reduce the grind is there if you know how. the important part is not to lock all the content behind a huge amount of time. Very few really want to spend hours...
I'm not a fan grind however it really does depend on the amount, having to do a repeatable event a few times is reasonable. the ones i hate is when you are forced to grind a stat for 20mins just to unlock a tease scene or ones that use escalating grind the higher you get the stat, a game i...