Casual player

[Asiaine]

And yet, you do. What would happen if they fully catered to the casual base? The game would be FAR different than it is now, not an easier version of what we have. Basically, not the game they wanted to create. But if you cater to the upper end of gamers, that group is small, and while that group would love it, it won't sustain a game.

But here I would have to sadly disagree with you. As a business they can choose their target audience:
'Casual' -- then build a game around this target group.
'Upper End' -- then build a game around this target group.

They would then have to manage their budget and costs in line with their target market (as any normal business would do). So for example, they would say:
Casual Market size: 1M people, expected revenue: 120M/year.
Upper End Market size: 200k people, expected revenue: 36M/year

Then they would say: Production Costs:
Production Costs to meet Casual Market & Upkeep: 80M/year
Production Costs to meet Upper End Market & Upkeep: 20M/year (less servers, and less frequent content may be needed to cater to them, and perhaps less flashy graphics).

And so on, until they decide what business model they want. Then they create the game for that model.

What they've done with FFXIV 2.0 is go: Ooh, I would love a game that has this, this and this! Okey... it's made! Yes.. this is how I want the game to be.. okey.. now.. um. Who is the right people to sell this to?

And therein is the 'flaw' if you will.

Now, you don't HAVE to cater to both. You CAN cater to a niche/target demography. You can also try to have mass appeal. This game definitely does not have mass appeal. Which leaves the question: What demography were they targeting?