I do hope the developers and localization teams reading this knows the meaning behind the word "Elitism". It's not a term used only in FFXI but in real world circumstances as well.
Many people now days talk about how easy this, that and the other is but I must disagree in SOME regards. Elitism used to be a huge problem in FFXI, bottlenecking many players out of being able to participate in content and now it seems to be rearing it's head once more.
Anymore, there is very little content for "groups" of people to do and for this content, unless you have certain pieces of gear you won't just be considered "gimp" but in this day and time, no one will even use you. I will give a couple of quick examples.
Let's say you're a Bard. Anymore, you are expected to be able to at LEAST cast 3 songs and many want you to have Daurdabla which allows you to cast 4 spells. To even get 3 songs up you must spend many millions of gil.
For Paladin, you are expected to have an Aegis and possibly an Ochain as well. At WORST case you are expected to have a Priwen which can cost many millions of gil.
These are a couple of many examples that exist like this. Many people are blinded by the fact that many things became easier without looking at exactly how the game has evolved and what problems, while in different form still exist.
Once upon a time I could devote many hours a day playing this game and finally got to an "ultimate" point on my character, this was all lost effort once the level cap was raised. I'm not here to cry about that, but since then my life has changed and I have become one of the more "casual" players. I cannot devote hours of work per day to farming, doing dynamis and cannot always devote set amounts of time to events, because of that, whenever I think "I would like to play X_JOB" I am reminded that it would take too much effort to be able to take it to a point where it could be used in a event that presents a group with any bit of a challenge. I end up feeling defeated and just tend to log off.
Oddly, back in the day, many years ago there was less of a gap between the best gear in the game and things you could buy right off the auction house for not much gil. It was more of "You get 2% more haste on this" and "You get 5 more accuracy on that" and "You get 3 more STR on that." If you were smart and put some effort into it, you could gear yourself plenty good enough to participate in events and be useful while upgrading further.
Again, even though there are some nice options out there, there is a huge gap between what people consider "Delve worthy" and battle worthy jobs, who are capable of actually taking on a challenge and people who do not have the options to get such outstanding gear.
I'm not asking to be the best by any means, I just wish there was less of a gap, where people could have fun with making multiple jobs useful "end game" that they could use in events without many months worth of effort.
Back in the day, if you had a Hauberk or a Scorpion Harness and a Walarha Turban, matched with some items you could buy off the auction house for not too much and mixed with personal skill you could be useful. Anymore, it doesn't seem it be the case for as I noted, events that require a team and give you a challenge.