If all you do in this game is level, then what else is there left to do? Without quests (which is what the periodic level cap challenges are) where is the substance to this game?
Now people are asking for a game where you don't even need to earn or learn your place in the world?
It's already bad enough that I can join a book burn, fall asleep, and wake up 11 levels higher without pushing a single button...but now, there are actually people on this forum advocating we remove the last few obstacles that require someone actually know how to play the game?(or want to)
When I first plotted my return to FFXI it was because I read an article in mid-2008 about the hardest boss fight of all time lasting over 18 hours and causing gamers to pass out from exhaustion. I wanted to play the game because it was hard.
I solo'd BST the entire way to 75 and would never think twice about the opportunity to do it again.
But, what is motivating people to join this game now? The cooperative element has all but dried up. The people that invite you to groups aren't potential friends or acquaintances, you are just the next piece of fresh meat for them to suck the life out of.
Most people pass these level caps the same way they acquire many of the hard to get atmas: sit around on the sideline and watch the real players do the work.
What is the point of even "playing" a game like this?
I can't speak to the OPs problems, but in the general sense, you lose Maat fights due to lack of preparation.
Although Red Mage is a difficult fight, you lose it for 3 main reasons:
1. Lack of skill-maxing...You need maxed Swords and maxed Elemental Magic at the least.
It takes about 4 - 7 days for a new player to reach level 70 in the current game...if you have friends or an alt to pass through the limit breaks for you, this can be done in half the time.
0 to over 300 swords could take the same amount of time under non-ideal conditions.
0 to 250+ elemental takes a literal 4 days of doing nothing but casting and resting with signet on. I don't mean 4 days either, I mean a literal 4x24 hour period of time.
2. Lack of gear preparation - this includes appropriate expendable items.
3. Lack of macro preparation.
These 3 are all the most basic steps necessary to being remotely viable at a job in this game.
Beating Maat fights are not all that hard. Beating them at 70 though...with the above 3 steps taken, I'm not sure how you lose.
Say whatever you want about the developers of this game, but I don't really think they made the things that matter most in this game that much easier.
What they did do is make getting EXP easier. In fact, they made getting EXP easy. Mindless, brainless, and operator-less (see afk comment above).
The hardest part of this game is finding a competent and reliable group of people you want to spend your time online with. If anything, recent changes have made doing so even more difficult.
Why people think sitting in a book burn fighting monsters 15 levels lower than them could or would prepare them for a fight designed for a player that actually invested time and energy into their character is beyond me.
At the point where you've leveled 70 times and can't defeat a fight that has been documented so many times over with strategies, videos, and more comments on the wiki talk section than any other page combined, you really need to draw one conclusion:
I'm not very good at this game, and I probably never will be. But if I hope at all to even have a chance, I'll need to accept that this is only the beginning of a VERY long road, not the end of one as the game's dialogue would suggest.
Or yeah, it took me 3 nights to burn PLD to 70 on my newb BLU and it's a guaranteed win for all but the truly worst players.
Good luck.