OP is 100% correct on all points. Square Enix has dropped the ball in multiple ways here. I don't need to reiterate what he said.

I will add however that nothing was EVER going to live up to Coil no matter what, so people's expectations shouldn't have been set that high. Coil had the benefit of riding on an insane amount of hype that carried over from all the way back in 1.X - the End of an Era trailer sold the game to a large amount of people. When you finally entered, you felt like this is what every moment you've spent on the game was preparing you for. It will never be topped.

Still, that's not an excuse for having a shoddy endgame now. Let's not jump to conclusions until the next Alexander raid comes out though - maybe they'll have learned from their mistakes.