It seems the design is to force players to actually travel, not just teleport everywhere all the time.
Which jives with the rest of the design of the game. If you're flagged it's to help encourage/allow for PvP opportunities in transit, if you're not it's to allow for you to detour to harvest rare materials etc.
I get the frustration at the slow travel at times, it's vastly out of step with modern MMO's which have extensive use and easy access for fast travel. But easy access to fast travel would kinda undermine parts of the game design.
I'm still in my 20's and I'm usually near capped on azoth. I spend a bit to fast travel for quests every once in a while, but mostly I'll just hoof it to where I'm going while keeping an eye on my compass and watching something on my second monitor.