I don't fully agree with this update, I would have much rathered if they made the zones act the same as BC zones, Assaults, etc
This would have been ideal, but it is impossible due to the physical design of the area and how "instancing" (It's not really instancing but gives a similar result) works in FFXI. I can explain it if you want but probably best to do so in another thread.

Basically, it's much easier for them to just change how the monsters appear in the zone and such, and change the items for entry and how they're obtained, than to actually re-make the zones so that they could apply pseudo-instancing.

(This post is not an endorsement of this so-called petition)