Spoiler-ful advice to SE's Writing Team for Future Content.

[CyrilLucifer]

I'm really glad OP isn't on this writing team.

They barely have enough time to develop the recurring cast they have already.

Krile has had no development since her introduction, all that development has (very thankfully, to be honest) gone to Unukalhai; she's literally just a mouthpiece to tell us about the Echo, which Unukalhai could do better considering his true age and experience, and sell cute figures. Y'shtola is basically just a fountain for witty comments at this point and hasn't had a personal conflict outside of the loss of her body/sight, which didn't even develop her personality or count as inner conflict, since 1.0. Moenbryda had no development at all. After more than 2 years in-game, Yugiri has only now started having a strictly defined personality that amounts to more than "honor-driven foreigner who cares for her people."

It took until 3.4 for Urianger to finally get some development since 1.0. 3.4!

And then we have the GC leaders. Merlwyb and Kan-E-Senna only had tiny little scenes in Heavensward to remind us they exist. Raubahn is the rightful exception.

Thancred and Minfilia are obvious exceptions but to me it shows that SE isn't very good at handling a large cast. FFXI's story succeeded because it focused on such a small cast with each expansion.

Heavensward also highly benefited from having fewer characters in its main cast. If it requires killing off characters rather than throwing them away never to be seen again, so be it.

That being said, I do find senseless self-sacrifice to be overdone in this title.