I understand and support the OP's constructive criticism, but it's too late now.
They couldn't raise the level cap past 99 so they had to do it through ilevel.
Real question is: did the game really needed to increase the level cap? FFXI stayed at level75 for like what, 7 years? I guess a few more years of level 99 wouldn't hurt, would they?

It seems things are getting better, they are trying to adapt SoA's model (vertical, linear progression) to make it more similar to what it used to be before (horizontal progression, sidegrades, lots of different events).
The final result will probably be a compromise but it will be better than the SoA launch.


With the AF revamps and incoming relic and then empy revamps, RME revamps, more gear to be added, more fractures, more skirmish, more "new" events and I even expect some small revamps to old events.
With all of this going on I feel a bit more positive concerning the future of FFXI compared to how depressed and frustrated I felt when SoA came out.



We really have to realize and accept the fact that it's too late for them to press the reset button and completely reset all the several changes (which we didn't like) that happened with SoA.
But trying to slightly tilt the direction and find a common ground between the 2 game models is a good sign imho, I want to be optimist for once.