People need to learn how humans think.

What does a person think if they join an older MMO and they realize that to catch up to content will take 3 years, and when they have caught up to today's content, they'll be 3 years behind that year's content. They will surely quit, and that is why you see all MMOs either going faster/easier with time, or shutting down. Because people will always quit, but new people can only be kept by making sure they catch up. Hence FFXI is what it is today, because it is old and wants to attract new people. Had it remained as you people wish it was, it would have died from quitters and no fresh players.

Secondly every young soul who picked up XI is now 10 years older, and SHOULD have a job and family. These clearly can not spend the same time on FFXIV as FFXI, which means this game had to be faster and shorter, or they wouldn't have re-captured most of the old FFXI players. Sure there are exceptions of adults who like spending every free hour in the same single MMO, and would have been fine with a re-make of FFXI. But the money was at FFXIV design and the first game failing made them focus on profit and not conservative fans.

Today's FFXI and FFXIV are just natural evolution and adaption to the community. It is OK to like Dinosaurs, but they are no longer around for a reason, same with FFXI old-school content.