The real problem is that Final Fantasy XI has forgotten that it's less about getting there and more about being there. It was once difficult, but that's exactly where the fun was! Perhaps it took two to three times to beat a mission, or in rare cases more like ten. But on that tenth time was the euphoria of doing the impossible. Having is dull. Any child can grow bored of a toy easily and quickly. An adult savors the chase of a dream, so long as the hunt itself remains invigorating. Chains of Promathia, for all of its difficulties--no,*because* of its difficulties--had a sense of tension and build-up to the final fight. It had characters to love and hate. COP rings were a badge of honor. Abyssea has a lot of stuff to do, but with no reason other than having so many trinkets and souvenirs, that any sense of the magic of storytelling is long since forgot. Good gear is simply a cheap brew away.
Although I personally agree with this there are many that don't and if given a difficult challenge will simply give up, well over half the playerbase never completed CoP. Many will complain how easy something is but if given something that is quite hard to kill, to the point of actually losing a few times simply won't do it again. Some people take failure very badly.