That may be but the argument put forth seemed rather vague in a way that seemed like it fit more than just this game.

You're playing a modern style MMO and it's not trying to hide that identity either. When it comes down to it even if I take your argument and put it on FFXIV specifically I still have to wonder why you're playing this game. It seems to me you have certain expectations that this game was going to fail to meet by virtue of the kind of game it was from day one. Do you often eat oranges expecting it to taste like apples then get annoyed at the orange for failing to taste like an apple?

You also say substance, but I have to wonder about that too. The game is simply something to do. The people are the substance and the game is something to do with those people. If you expect the game to deliver everything in an MMO then you're going to have a bad time. The gear treadmill can continue forever as long as I have fun friends to ride it with. It never feels like a grind with friends around.