Why is race and nationality ignored so much in the lore? (why does the lore fail)

[Abriael]

i'm sorry. one of the quests was like "zomg i made cookies, i want ppl to like my cookies, run around limsa and give 5 ppl my cookies and like totally /psyche them up about it"
How is that great lore? or great writing? or interesting in anyway. You literally just run around town for 10 min and /psych at 5 npcs who are like "nom nom good".....

this compared to ffxi in which a quest might have you watch a 5 min cutscenes with child elvaans talking about wanting to take part and help out in the war, the adults telling them not to, one of the kids running off to take on an orc, having to go save said kid from a crazy orc overlord, epic fighting, etc.

You have VERY low standards my friend.

So my friend....
run around town and give people cookies
or save a headstrong kid from his stubborness to help protect a nation from a beastman onslaught.

The interesting part of the cookies quest is not what you're doing, but the comments you receive, which do give quite a few interesting hints on the life in Limsa, on some of the races and other things. Of course, reading comprehension and the ability to resist speedclicking is necessary (not to mention actual interest in the actual lore of the world, not just in the lore of the impending war against enemy X).

What people with poor taste and poor understanding don't really manage to grasp is that realistic worlds are populated with real people, that have everyday problems. Great lore and information about the world can be conveyed very well through those people.
In a realistic world not every headstrong kid needs to be saved to help protect a nation from a beastman onslaught.

In a realistic fantasy world there are both people with their everyday problems, and other people rallying companies of elite soldiers to prepare against the invasion of a ruthless empire of machina users.

FFXIV is building up having both. Immersion is built by a sense of realism, and if there were only quests to save the world, that sense of immersion would go down the drain.

I'm afraid the one with low standards (and no knowledge on how to build an immersive, realistic world), here, isn't me.