Fact of the matter is, that with their under 100k subs, it's not mathematically possible for FF XI to be making as much per month that FF XIV is currently making.
Let me say that again: it's not mathematically possible for FF XI to be more profitable than XIV at this point in time.
You may not like it, but while FF XI is, as you say, making a pittance, it's making nowhere even glimmeringly near pretending to be close to the money that FF XIV is currently making. As such, yeah, it's completely appropriate for SE to not pay as much attention to those players.
Edit: and to be 100% completely fair: yes, it's possible for FF XIV to not be as profitable long term. Let me do the math for you on that though, so it's not conjecture:
FF XI had an average of 200k subs over 10 years. That's a gross revenue of $360 M. Total. Over the 10 years. Assuming 0 in uncovered development costs (~note: it's been long accepted that box sales cover dev costs, so we'll ignore that, and give FF XI a best case scenario of 360 M in profits).
FF XIV has, right now, somewhere north of 1 M players (more than double the highest number that ever played XI at one time, by the way). So for the last 3 months alone, XIV has had a take of MINIMUM $15 M from subs. Going forward, the target is to maintain above 600k subs. We'll use that figure, because it's more than safe - all indicators are that the population of the game has increased since that point when the 1.04 M # was released to the public. This means that XIV will make AT MINIMUM $108 M per year of service. Calculating out the $150 M of development costs for the game (although nearly half of it was covered by the box sales, but we'll ignore that fact to give XI the most favorable situation possible), gives us the following to put XIV ahead of XI in terms of profitability: (360 + 150)/108 = Years to get more profitable than XI in the most favorable possible situation for XI. Therefore, in less than 5 years, XIV is more profitable than XI was over its entire 10 year lifespan, even at minimum subs. XIV maintaining anywhere close to its current sub numbers reduces that under 3 years.
Sorry, guys, but as much as you want it to be different, unless something dramatic changes, XIV is and will be not only more popular than XI, but will be more profitable pretty quickly.