Does FFXI have a future? Sure it does. I don't subscribe to the theory that SE is actively trying to sabotage the game to manufacture an excuse to shut it down. I think if they really wanted to shut it down they simply would. If they thought that shutting the game down was in their own best interest they'd have zero qualms about doing so no matter who would be angered.

But see, that's their philosophy with content as well. They're going to do what they want to do above all else. Oh, they may compromise here and there when it suits them, but they are going to give us the content that suits their interests. They're going to make the game they want to make, not necessarily the game we want to play. If we happen to like it, that's good. If not, we just didn't get it.

So, yeah FFXI has a future. It's not a particularly bright future unless you're in lockstep with the devs, but a bad future is still a future.