Would the game miss the 2.X 8-person trials (and beyond) if they were nerfed?
I recently completed the current iteration of the 2.0 MSQ with 100% duty support, (review here: https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...2.0-edition%29) including all the 8-man level 50 "MSQ roulette" portions now made into 4-man content for the purposes of duty support, and I'm very very invested now in what happens to... every mandatory 8-person undertaking that happens before endwalker (and perhaps eventually those too) as duty support makes its way from patch to patch. I did not realize that the 8-person "imperial finale" stuff from 2.0 was getting turned into 4-man content and made full duty support, but man was that ever a pleasant surprise!
The thing is, if 2.X is getting its turn for the same treatment, I am really wondering what will potentially be lost from the game if the NINE 8-person trials in that stretch of content will be nerfed into 4-person duty support or some potentially removed from the MSQ (meaning the "original three" primals' hard modes). To be clear... I want this outcome, and I think almost any "loss" is worth it. I just want to know what that loss might be.
I've only been truly playing since shadowbringers so I guess my question is: would anything important be lost if they took the 8-person trials and boiled them down to 4-person duty support trials? Or would they have to remain as is due to some reward paradigm I'm not aware of? I don't see the 7-NPC group format that we got at the end of endwalker being spread throughout the MSQ, but then again I also didn't expect the "Imperial finale" series from 2.0 to be turned into 4-person content.
Is there a functional, reward-systemic reason why more MSQ-mandatory trials can't be nerfed from 8-person to 4-person? I guess we'll find out in a few months, but I thought I'd ask for discussion and speculation's sake!