Introduce Rare & Unique Set Item drops
A lot of games allready use this system. Battlenet is one of them (diablo series) and it has always been an enjoyable system. How it works? Let me explain:
Basically you have a random chance set items (diff color text) that if you combine them gives you additional stats bonuses depending on what item you add to your collection.
And there is the rare items (all of them are seperate, no set function and diff color text).
Rare items are the top (best) items that carry exceptional stats or give you a random skill/spell you normally wouldn't be able to use with your class.
In Diablo those stats were "random, meaning that if one person gets a 9% of additional dps, another would give 11% with a max of 15% for example".
How SE would do it is their own choice.
Still in practice (as example) lets say the max ilvl of an item is 450 and you can only get this through end game Extreme/Ultimate trial drops... rare drops should pop up from the chests in dungeons and in case of an end game dungeon (max lvl) it should allow you to get a set item "or" a 460 rare item. Since the dropchance would be low barely anyone would actually get one of these items.. but it adds to the excitement of knowing you "might" get something good.
A set item on the otherhand would be something like the armor sets that has max meldable slots with "second in line" SET BONUS STATS so if you fully meld it, you get similar stats then someone wearing full 450 set as mentioned in this example.
I suggest SE finds a way to introduce this "exceptional" gear so people who don't like end game still get a chance to shine (with a little luck ofcourse).
Not saying they should use the set idea, but they should at the very least use the rare item idea... and turn it into something exciting to make FFXIV feel unique once again.