Some things I think need to be brought to attention

[Sotek]

No. What makes the world feel so cramped and devoid of exploration is the fact that you've already explored it. Nobody, and I mean nobody, walked into Coerthas for the first time, their map completely blank, and didn't feel some sense of exploration from that. You didn't know what was around the corner at that point. That is when exploration was alive in XIV.

Removing the Duty Finder? That wouldn't solve the issue, though it would be nice. You're not going to be running to Amdapor Keep for the bajillionth time and feeling any sense of exploration, because it will be the bajillionth time you're trod that path.
Making bigger zones? Again, doesn't solve the issue. Just means you spend slightly longer exploring a zone. Once you've explored it though, you've still explored it, and you have the exact same problem we have now.

The problem with exploration is one of creating a feeling of sustained exploration. Single player titles didn't need to worry about this, you explored, finished the game, done. MMOs? you explored, then you grind levels, gear, whatever. The only real solution to this problem is frequent content updates which include new zones to explore. Again, if you played a single player title like you do a MMO, you'd have the exact same problem. You get an airship. You can travel from the Ice Cavern to the final dungeon in a matter of seconds. Exploration is dead by the end of any game. And as for "everything interesting is locked away behind the duty finder", I disagree with that completely, and I could go about posting dozens of pictures to refute it, but at this point I really cannot be asked. All the challenging "random encounter" level mobs are, certainly. Landmarks however, there are interesting ones literally round every corner which would have elicited some reaction upon first discovering them. I remember discovering Urth's Fount quite fondly. Though that was during beta when the level cap was "Go here and you will die".

As for difficulty, well, I certainly never had trouble with random encounters in any RPG outside the initial learning period of the game. After that it's just "Can I one hit this with simple attacks? Yes? Mash A. No? What is this weak to?" etc. Bosses were the only real challenge in any of the old games, when I got "stuck" in any of them, it wasn't a matter of "this random encounter is too hard!", it was a matter of "this boss is too hard, better grind easy random encounters to level".