This was done because in WoW, opening your map filled you entire screen. You couldn't play and keep your map open at the same time. Thus the animation had the practical purpose of showing other players, "Hey. Just FYI, this person can't see or do anything at the moment." If you opened up your "battle map" as they called it though (I think it was Shift+M?), which is the style of map that FFXIV uses, then your character made no such animation. That's because the "battle map" isn't meant for opening and closing in short bursts. It's meant for integrating into your UI however you see fit, in order to allow players a way to keep a map permanently toggled on. I often find myself keeping my map open permanently in FFXIV, as was surely the entire intention behind implementing the "battle map" style over the full screen style.
That said, this animation did add some nice flavor and serve some practicality in WoW, However, I just don't think that it would fit FFXIV the same way. I for one, with my map always displayed, know that I'd get awfully annoyed if every time I stopped moving, it meant that my character found her nose buried into a map instead of looking up at the world around her.
