The best solution overall regarding the issues created by the bots (not the bots themselves, since it IS taking forever for SE to actually do anything noticeable from our end,) would be to increase the break rate on the low level desynth items and decrease the break rate on stuff from 75+ content and especially cards. Make it amazingly unprofitable to farm the lower level stuff (particularly mandatory items for missions and level breaks,) then funnel all the cheaters into specific small corners of Vana'diel. I know that this would basically be sweeping the garbage under the rug, and the STF would still have their work cut out sorting out who's botting and who's a legit player among farmers, but at least it would no longer be a ragequit inducing situation for NEW players who are currently getting totally walled off from basic gameplay progress that is MANDATORY for every character that actually gets played.
It's not just shield farmers btw.. Exp/CP farming bots have also gotten out of hand. There are many obvious and blatant botters in Escha-Zi'tah that make it difficult to keep exp chains going for those who are actively playing the game for example..