Census regarding 64-bit requirement for FFXIV

[MistakeNot]

32 bit OSes have major ram allocation issues, if I'm correct it can only "see" 4 gigs of RAM total, not above per application. So if you have 16 gigs and a 32 bit OS, you're literally not using the RAM resources of the system.

Not quite. There are certain hardware "tricks" (PAE) that allowed even processors as old as the Pentium Pro to access up to 64 GB of RAM, and Microsoft Windows (and other OS like Linux or FreeBSD) does know how to utilize that.
Many Windows editions are artificially limited though in how much memory they can use (Starter editions have lower limits than normal consumer editions which in turn have lower limits than Server editions is the usual sequence)

A single 32-bit program cannot see more than 4GB at once though, no matter how much memory the machine may have. Under Windows 32-bit programs are usually limited to 2GB, but there is an OS flag one can use to let them use up to 3GB although that can lead to compatibility problems with certain device drivers and stuff.

[KarstenS]

There are certain hardware "tricks" (PAE).

The issue with PAE is, that every driver and also software must be compatible to it or the system will crash. Thats the reason it is disabled by default. As far I remember, it only got used in server environments.