It's not about removing anything repetitive - it's about trying to find a balance that works best for the player and for you as the developer/producer.

MMOs and games in general have you experience content in roughly 5 different ways: authored (expensive), procedural (complex and generic), emergent (problems explode with size), repeated (the grind), or user generated. Each game, and each system and region inside a game, is a balance between those.

In RuneScape social is the appeal, and you got things to click and numbers go up while you chat with people.

Exactly, I played RuneScape a bunch in highschool and would spend some weekends just grinding. Sounds boring af, but the fun thing was talking with my friends, or with complete strangers. MMO may be able to use social interaction to offset the problems of grinding, although it's probably not for free. Some incentivization for interacting with others, and safety features to feel comfortable to reach out, are needed.

The grind is absolutely not the appeal, but the other cool stuff outweighs it.