Joining the conversation late, but to answer the topics question. It already has become quite raid centric, with all the best gear only begotten from the 8-man dungeon, and prior to that the hardest NMs required 8-man, and even prior to those changes required as many at 15-man.

FFXIV is yet another MMO that claims itself to be a PvE game, and makes it so its more than possible to solo throughout the whole of the adventure, but as soon as you want the best stuff, you're forced into raiding. Now don't take this the wrong way, I love to group up and kill mobs and play with others, but what I hate is running the same instances over and over and over again hoping for specific drops.

There needs to be other ways to get the best stuff, even for the solo player.