People need to speak up more for Alchemist buff.

[Mikara]

Doesn't change the fact that the actual useful applications are VERY limited and still not worth spending the time / money on wasting when food does a much better job over the course of the fight (or many fights if you are farming them).

[Crevox]

Doesn't change the fact that the actual useful applications are VERY limited and still not worth spending the time / money on wasting when food does a much better job over the course of the fight (or many fights if you are farming them).

Limited? Name one fight where you think they're not useful. Every fight has moments where they greatly increase encounter success, for every role.

As for the farming comment, like I said: the cost of that good quality food is the same cost of X potions over those X fights. Maybe the gil market doesn't agree, but the amount of effort to obtain them sure does.

And currently in FFXIV there is no driving need for these items.

There is no driving need simply because players don't know their usefulness. Not everyone clears all content with ease; there are wipes and failures on all content every day. Any one of those failures could have potentially been averted if potions were used (skillfully).

That's probably the one problem with potions: they require knowledge of when and how to use them. If you're sloppy and use them ineffectively, then yeah, of course they're going to be bad. But I've already provided tons of explanations on how and where to use them.