The current state of the "MMORPG" FFXIV is unsustainable. Here's why

1) Trivialised combat.
The combat has come a long, long way since Stormblood. Did it go the right way though? No it didn't. It's easy, jobs are homogenized and it's rotations are far too simple, on top of removal of lots of positionals (looking at you, Monk). Absolute destruction of jobs such as Astrologian and Summoner, removal of things that made jobs feel good such as Samurai, removal of DoTs and party buffs. Go watch a couple of Stormblood raiding videos and you'll see what I mean.

2) Trivialised encounters
Constant nerfing of dungeons, not only by power/potency creep. The very first red flag being Coincounter from Aurum Vale, then allowing rezzes in Titan and Sophia if people fall down the arena. The absolute, shameless nerfing of Orbonne Monastery and Thunder God Cid.

3) No long-term content and grinds
Perhaps the reason -why- people are so bored in Endwalker is the lack of long-term things to do in the current expansion. Most notably, the lack of a Foray such as Eureka and Bozja. Both, who really had a MMO feel to them, a large group of players working together in an instance, while now we're stuck to running 4 man content for most of the tomestones with easy, not challenging fights.

Final Fantasy XIV ceased to be a challenging game. In a pursuit to appease the raiding crowd to allign their epic 2 minute burst, and cutting content because of people who whined about having to do any effort to obtain their shiney weapons are really damaging the game which results in the mid-core players to suffer the most. Unless Square Enix / YoshiP want to save this game, I'm afraid it will go on a downwards spiral in 2 years, if not less.

TL;DR: No long term investment forays/grind, easy combat and easy encounters.

foray/exploration zones are ok for some, but they lack longevity when things are required like CLL/DR/Dalriada are part of them and there aren't enough people later to populate to get things done well. I'd wager that as many people that don't want to do forays as there are that do, so it's a toss up as to whether it is good use of resources or not.

More work was needed for Bozja so there was no DD for Endwalker. People clamored for it, so we got DD back in EW, and along with resources going to Island Sanctuary, meant no exploratory zone.

As for difficulty, well there's always DSR/TOP. A lot of people I know are still struggling with P8S too.

If people want the Stormblood relics they should suck it up and do Eureka. Bozja having a bunch of cool stuff such as CLL/Dalriada and Delubrum Reginae was amazing. That's the kind of content we need and -not- give the option to get relics outside of such foray.
Difficulty wise, Ultimates are designed for a tiny fraction of the playerbase, it doesn't reflect the midcore players like I said. Stormblood was the perfect middle ground.

Rezzes being allowed in duties that previously didn't allow for them is really just bringing those duties in line with the current design strategy of content that uses similar knock off mechanics.
Coincounter was fun when the max level was lower. Now it's very solidly in the entry level portion of content so I don't see it as an issue, especially considering how the first room still sucks to this day.
The lack of exploratory zone is something I would personally call a good thing. Bozja and Eureka were not future proofed and can be difficult/impossible to progress in depending on your world/DC.

For anybody who thinks I'm making excuses for mistakes on SE's part; I'm not. I don't consider most of OP's points to be mistakes in the first place.

I guess another reason why this game won't go forward is because of the horde of casuals who are more than fine with Square Enix handling them crumbles of bread instead of a well polished product. Long grinds, well designed forays be damned. Better to just get a relic with 1500 tomes or else it won't respect people's times. Well, can always do the next step 4 months from now on, great. Good design. A game designed so you don't have to play it.
Also both Eureka and Bozja are still kicking in NA, EU and JP. Can't speak for OCE but that whole datacenter was a mistake which is a different issue.
https://i.imgur.com/73fmma6.png

I do feel like they're leaning way too hard into following the "safe" content cycle they've had since HW.

It's nice that they made an attempt at introducing new types of content through Island Sanctuary and variant/criterion dungeons, but both still lack the longevity the exploratory zones had.

Remember...CASUALs, are what make a game thrive. They will still be around playing and paying so long as they are entertained Well before the Hardcore crowd is gone. Plus there are more Casuals in the gamer Space then hardcores.
But A nice Balance is needed, for the Hardcore who want challenges, and for the Casuals who just want a fun game to play but might become hardcore as they stick with the game.
A grind here or there.

Honestly, the more people talk and harp about Explore Zones, the more Happy I am that they arnt a thing this time. Mainly because as I grow older, I have more responsibilities and dont have as much time or Energy to game. So the current way I can casually enjoy the game and work towards the next Relic step.
But ALSO, we are only on step 2. The Resistance Relic in ShB started out crap easy, and then that got its grindy steps.
Who is to say that wont happen later?

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Originally Posted by Xirean

Rezzes being allowed in duties that previously didn't allow for them is really just bringing those duties in line with the current design strategy of content that uses similar knock off mechanics.
Coincounter was fun when the max level was lower. Now it's very solidly in the entry level portion of content so I don't see it as an issue, especially considering how the first room still sucks to this day.
The lack of exploratory zone is something I would personally call a good thing. Bozja and Eureka were not future proofed and can be difficult/impossible to progress in depending on your world/DC.

For anybody who thinks I'm making excuses for mistakes on SE's part; I'm not. I don't consider most of OP's points to be mistakes in the first place.

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Bozja and Eureka have a player-size issue, not a difficulty issue. Sort of two different things. There are discord groups you can join to fix that issue. You should search and give them a try.

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Originally Posted by Zanarkand-Ronso

Honestly, the more people talk and harp about Explore Zones, the more Happy I am that they arnt a thing this time. Mainly because as I grow older, I have more responsibilities and dont have as much time or Energy to game. So the current way I can casually enjoy the game and work towards the next Relic step.
But ALSO, we are only on step 2. The Resistance Relic in ShB started out crap easy, and then that got its grindy steps.
Who is to say that wont happen later?

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The thing is that even if it's more grindy, it's likely just going to boil down to spamming some manner of underutilized content SE wants to liven up again.

I wanted a grind in new content, not stuff I've likely already spent hours farming in previous expansions or the current one.

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Originally Posted by Yukimin

A game designed so you don't have to play it.

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I really like how you said this, because I totally feel that. A lot.

"Playing the game to not play the game."(1)

And yes, I get that this might be a "me problem."(2)

But, like recently, I had mentioned to a friend that I didn't really mind Island Sanctuary just so long as I was listening to an engaging podcast--essentially playing the game (Island Sanctuary) to not play it (listening to the podcast "Carmudgeon"--with Jason Cammisa and Derek Tam-hyphen-Scott).

There are other examples: macro crafting (i.e., tabbing out while the macro is running, and watch an interesting video about the B18 engine), Diadem gathering (granted, Diadem is not new, but once again, listening to podcasts while mindlessly flying from node to node), and sometimes even roulettes (mostly "Main Story" roulette--like I appreciate the MSQ rework, but it's still very much afk-city; CT/ST raids are podcast fodder; and a large portion of the Lv. 60-80 dungeons--the "trash packs" feel very much like "autopilot"--i.e., turn my brain off and push two or three buttons--in fact, the Lv 90 Troia dungeon just exasperates this, because it's literally "trash packs" upon "trash packs" until the second boss), etc...

That said, I do enjoy certain aspects of the game like some of the latter Alliance (24-man) raids (Ivalice--especially "Math boss" & Mustadio, NieR--love almost everything, the Twelve--mostly because it's new & fresh and my friends goad me to get my weekly coin), Critical Engagements and Delubrum Reginae (although, the Bozja-content, I felt, could have used some tweaks/improvements and, perhaps, been iterated & improved upon)--mostly because I'm actually playing the game--without podcasts or videos running in the background--I'm actually engaged.

I want to continue enjoying Final Fantasy XIV (3), but it's become increasingly difficult, because more and more I feel like it's become a daily/weekly chore/checklist to "play" a game that I'm trying to find new ways to actually not play. I just want more reasons to actually play FF14.

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(1) Yes, I realize it's sort of a "min-max" to an extreme, but that's sophistry
(2) I've unsubscribed/voted-with-my-wallet
(3) I'll totally be back for 6.4/7.0, because I still really like FF14 and the friends I've made along the way