A bit of a dead horse, but yes, you are correct. It is an abysmal design choice.

And it's not like this is the first MMO in their franchise to make it work, I recall Ballista doing it correctly. People who want to play PvP don't do it for the lore, but because they want to play some damn PvP. So whether you were Bastokan, Sandorian, or Windurstian, it would place you in whatever faction needed to bodies. And it worked fine, no one team never annihilated the other, because you were constantly changing factions based on who needed bodies. This would also absolve queue's being ridiculous for certain factions, since everyone would be the same.

So if FFXI, a far older MMO, can execute it well, why can't XIV? Why can't they take the good ideas from XI, and utilize them properly? Why did no one have the foresight to say, "Hey wait a moment, this is going to be really irritating for the player."

I have high hopes for Frontlines, unlike Wolves' Den, which is sort of hot garbage, which is why it bugs me so much. Potential squandered is far worse than something just being bad by default.