Level cap increase every 1-2 years.

[Shipp]

They aren't except one destroys content for new and old players alike, while the other allows it co-exist.

Please tell me how sky was still relevant up until Abyssea. Please tell me. I promise not to be a total ass when I prove you wrong.

I never saw anyone complaining about a lack of a level increase when CoP came out. None of the people I played with were expecting to see a level cap raise. I'm sure there must have been people making noise about it because the dev team did decide to make the statement that they had no plans to increase the level beyond 75.

If there was a schism in the ffxi community over the issue, I never saw it.

There was, and a rather large one at that. Abyssea just seems like an after-thought to give a dying game's fans what they want. At least to me. I never saw the point in raising the cap in XI, mainly because I had already pimped out my character with what I wanted, I had accomplished everything I wanted to, and I was done and over with the game mid-way through ToAU. Went to a game that didn't require 5+ hours to get normal things done, such as leveling and it still has my interest 5 years later.

FFXI started going downhill in ToAU, after that, it continued down that road. ToAU is what killed Sky and Sea in XI. This is why I stated earlier, the only people who think otherwise are people who didn't start until ToAU or they're looking back with rose-tinted glasses.