It was meant to be ironic. But saying that claim system mechanics were not relevant before Abyssea is plain ignorant. Claim system mechanics were, if anything, significantly more relevant in the days of World-Spawn HNMs than they are and will ever be in Abyssea.
You're missing my point, it's become more of an issue because players of all types have been jammed together in the same content. No it wasn't as much of an issue before because HNM shells knew how to deal with it and it wasn't exploited on a "knowledgeable player vs. not so knowledgeable player" basis.

I'm not saying it's glitching, you're getting the wrong idea.

It is not the game's fault that perma-casuals who have never done anything more "hardcore endgame" than Nyzul Isle have never been exposed to competitive play in FFXI. The fact, and I mean absolute fact, remains that Abyssea has made the game significantly less hyper-competitive than it has ever been.
I fail to see how that's the case. Competing for claim (for example) on HNM was something that only a handful of the playerbase ever did. Having another group wait for you to finish with the potential there for them to grab your mob if you screw up is something that a large amount of people are only being exposed to for the first time.

Having them know about the claim system is one thing, and I applaud efforts to educate people. Having said that it seems pretty shortsighted to ignore the fact that the details of the claim system are being exposed to many more, and a far broader range of players than they ever have been. Expecting people to be fully educated on the nuances of it is a bit rich really. I'm not sure what i'm saying, maybe that a "suck less" attitude is pretty damn far from helping the problem. Though i'm sure some sections of the playerbase that push that garbage line would gladly keep others in the dark to their own advantage.