Why vertical progression is poorly implemented

[Vaer]

Won't change unless they stop balancing everything around the raid.

XI didn't have to worry much about it since for most content it was either open world or for most instanced content you could bring a lot of people. That meant you could have a bunch of people in reserve parties or other alliances that could replace or support people in the main alliance.

In XIV, you bring 8 people and they all need to pull their weight to clear harder content early. So this ends up with people shunning certain jobs if the balance is off. There are limited spots in the party so they end up competing for the same couple of slots.

The best we could probably hope for are set bonuses that are only useful for the tier they are in but will get replaced with the next tier.