To me, FFXI has always committed the sin of "a lot of work for a little payout." The primary reason people play RPGs is to get stronger, deal more damage, and dish out punishment to previously die hard enemies. I've just finished my full thief empyrean armor +1 and compared it to the dumb, easy to obtain, aurore gear. There is not much difference at all. Not enough difference to justify getting it, I feel. The end should always justify the means, after all. The difference between the +1 and +2 thief gear seems much greater, but only due to the set augmenting triple attack.

The power granted to players in Abyssea should be the natural power of a level 90, steadily increasing from level 1. But SE wants to keep old content relevant (dynamis, campaign, etc.) since they don't really have a means to dish out content very fast anymore. And a key component in keeping this old content relative, is preventing the players from acquiring too much natural strength. It sucks, but oh well.