Main Scenario Restriction Bloodstorm - Very Very Bad idea.

[Nestama]

No, but you needed it to acces Dynamis, Sky and progress farther into RoV. And beating Shadowlord was absolutely meaningless in leveling up, where as in XIV, the MSQ is generally the fastest way to level, explore and gear up. As for Sea, it should have since the whole plot of CoP depends on the events in ZM. Didn't you find it silly to see dead people come back ?

Look, if endgame is locked behind the story of the same expansion it's in, that is fine. If you're locking current content behind 5-10 years of content, then you're making a huge mistake. Even Zilart, which did require you to beat the Shadowlord to even start its story, still allowed you to explore Zilart zones.

Yeah, imagine that, I'm a new player in the fifth expansion, and I burn every content in one month because the only thing that matters is the lattest expansion, especially with a leveling potion. Now, I'm bored and have to wait 6 months for anything remotely new to do. That's far more silly to offer to a new player.

Hyperbole. FFXI, the game you've been trying to use as an example, also says hi (and yes, I'm aware that some of the later expansions recommended you to be at a high level, but you could still enter and explore their starter dangerous zones. RoV, once again, was a free update. Not an expansion).