I will say this FFXIV messed up by making the endgame a "Side Story" to begin with, when if you cleared it would realize it (should) play a major role in the main scenario. Casual players care more about the story and less about the loot where as raiders care more about the challenge and rewards. The issue is Yoshi gave the wrong rewards to both player bases.

I'm sure casuals would not have complained if they had to invest in crafting to get ilv 130 or settled for a few ilvs lower if you gave them a more fulfilling story to follow before 2.5 and I doubt the Raiders would have cared if you removed the deep plot of Coils and just gave them more content to work with in general. I hope they learned and this is fixed in 3.0