I find it ironic that many of the peeps who advocate an "Open System where I decide what role I want to play and I decide how I want to play" continually rip the peeps who say they want a "Rigid System where I play a designated role in a party".

Wouldn't a truly Open System allow everyone to play the style they want? One person can play sandbox mode and another person can play a specific job/role in a party.

If you go back and read Tanaka's original vision, this is exactly what they tried to create. We all know they failed. But the failure was not because it tried to do both but rather because it was Sandbox (Open) only. There was no party structure and no job specialization. It was all "Solo-Easy Mode" content with no "Challenging-Party Mode" content.

Yoshi and team are now busy adding that Party/Job content that was missing while leaving the base Sandbox-Mode in place.

FFXIV was never meant to be one or the other (Open vs. Rigid) and they are not trying to make it into one or the other. They are still trying to deliver on the original promise of having content for both play styles.

Will XIV be doomed because neither camp is happy or will it succeed at being a hybrid? The (ftp) trial is still ongoing and evidence has yet to be submitted. We, the jury need to set aside preconceived notions and prejudices and judge the game on content we can actually play (evidence) and not on speculation (hearsay).