I feel like 4.0 is going to be make or break XIV's future in regards to long-term players. What really worries me is that they plan on making all jobs even easier than they currently are. Toning things down and making the game more streamlined is fine and will be a great addition, but if all they do is reduce all jobs down to a very small and simple set of skills with no strategy or thought required I can't say I'll be able to enjoy the game at all. Especially since most accessible (non-static requiring) content is already incredibly easy (3.4 expert dungeons are a perfect example).

Content can be easy and fun, but personally I feel like they're struggling to have both these things. I think this could have a bad effect on longer-term players as there's only so many times one can run super-easy content before it becomes extremely boring. This won't really affect newer players who haven't been exposed to this kind of content though. I try not to think it because I'm sure it's not true, but sometimes I don't think they care about long-term players at all.