Not just for series, this is the same with games.
"The first 50 hours of Final Fantasy 14 suck, but the expansions afterwards are worth it!"
"The game starts at max level!"
I can't stand it. And it's not like the game magically gets much better, it just feels pretty okay for someone who just wasted months of their time on the bad parts. Of course you'll enjoy mediocre parts later on after suffering through that crap.
A game has to start being fun ten minutes after the tutorial tops. Why play it otherwise?