It's only "a grind" if you make it that way. I jump around doing different things a lot. I never do any one thing for very long. I've been playing since March of this year. I've got about 600 hours in. I have Elite III trading and Elite Exploration and most of my ships are fully engineered without even trying.The Elite ranks, the faction ranks, Powerplay, Engineering, Odyssey - almost every possible feature has been blatantly set up to be a grind.
If you're single minded on something to the point it's all you do, then that's your issue. Fact is, there are so very many different things to do in this game the only way on earth anything is "a grind" is if you make it that way all by yourself.