The FFXIV team gave us a sneak peek of what the UI will look like a year from now. If it's going to undergo major changes, how about whetting our appetites with a sneak peek too?

I really really hope the change to the UI isn't going to be drastic.

I don't know why people complain about XI's UI, I've found it to be one of the most convenient, fastest UI in most areas bar certain parts.
You probably haven't played many other MMOs. The only concieveable strong point of FFXI's UI system is how basic it is. It lacks in information given, lacks in intelligent design (e.x. UI widgets covering up other UI widgets when they shouldn't), is almost unusable with the mouse (which drives a lot of would-be PC players off), is barely customizable at all, doesn't allow you to directly hotkey spells and abilities or many other functions for that matter, and has stupid rules for when you can and can't use certain functions ("You must close the currently open window to use that command").

The biggest problem is inability to customize. The ability to resize the log window is the best little baby step in that direction in a very long time.

I agree drastic changes would be very jarring to long time players, but it will be no more difficult to adjust to than when you learned it for the first time.