I played FFXI too and trust me this is a very different game.
Crafting is less tedious than it was in FFXI. In fact you gain levels just like adventuring levels and you can actually see your xp gain on the xp bar. However, you cant change crafting like you did in FFXI. You have to choose if you want to be a provisioner, weaponsmith etc. Your decision is final. Theres a lot of crafted stuff on the market and some of the best stock aside from raiding one comes from players. You will end up making money with your crafting skills in EQ2 much quicker than you did in FFXI, with less investment, both time and money.
The game is less difficult i would say than FFXI. While it was practically impossible to solo in FFXI starting level 18 or so, you can solo all the way to 60 in this game. Groups are easier to find and to form also ; you can even have a group with no tanks, but it will be much more challenging. Since every class has distinct abilities, you won't have to wait 6 hours to find yourself a group. I found both these aspects to be much more fun than FFXI where you could sit forever waiting for a group invite. Also since im not the grind type that much, having tons of quests to do helps keeping the fun factor up. The rewards are also worth it most of the times, at least it is compared to the ridiculous rewards FFXI's quests had to offer.
Player base is pretty much the same as FFXI i would say. While you may find some ppl to argue, i also find the player base of EQ2 much more mature than WoW. Of course this is based only on my own opinion but i know a lot of ppl that share the same. You can't help but having a few idiots running around, just like in any good MMORPG, but they usually end up on your ignore list quicker than you can even think about it !
Hope that helps.