I'm of a similar opinion to you. Anything not completely humanoid would be welcome by me. For example, this was what Au Ra could have been from the official art of FFXIV:







And I would have loved all of the versions of it so much more! The reason why they chose humanoid again is because they tried to appeal to the looks that community would most likely like. As most of the community liked catgirls, they decided to go for a race that would look pretty and appealing again. However when all your game has is pretty races it gets boring.

And yes, animalistic races if not humanoid end up underplayed. However the way that I see it, it still brings the much needed variety into the game. Further down are examples from other MMOs that SE could choose to copy:


GW2 Charr


World of Warcraft Pandarens


World of Warcraft Tauren


Tera Popori

And why am I saying copy? There are plenty of FF examples above me that SE could use... I guess my point is... I would love a more animalistic race in design.