Locked out of future MSQ progression?

[Lazaruz]

This is simply so wrong that its embarrassing to even have to explain it.
Its an MMO, and the sole mission of the studio is to try and keep the players around, subscribing month after month, year after year.

A valid point, but I feel like you're omitting the other side. Some people would get bored if there was never really any form of difficulty increase (I mean just look at Ultimate. Players specificly requested that difficulty tier) if, for a lack of better words, lets say the MSQ allways meant you would quite litterally be able to beat it in one try without any effort involved.

Reason why, or atleast speaking from a extremely personal perspective, is the sense of hand holding. What's the difference in actually clearing something yourself, compared to just going to youtube and watching a let's play, when the game is going out of its way to make sure you clear it. It's a very patronising feeling, and I atleast, would get quite sick of it rather fast.
Sure with most RPG's there's still that level of personal story, you can still make the journey your own, but FFXIV is very much so railroading you on one path when it comes to the story.

However, I'm digressing, and people much more clever then me have already touched on why allowing you to queue with people into the solo MSQ instances wouldn't be a good idea. I'd like to add though, that from a story perspective, it wouldnt make sense for us to have that ability, as the game is very clear on you the player being the only Warrior of Light, while the people you queue with when killing primals, raiding or what have you, are at best left to player headcanon if they're even Echo users.

[JCharms]

A valid point, but I feel like you're omitting the other side.

I can see where youre coming from, but I cant understand how the msq can be related to progression raiding/gearing, and it seems a lot in this thread are also of that mind.
You even mention it yourself, a "tier".. They exist because there are people with varying degrees of ability.
The last game I played had 3 tiers in the msq, dungeons and raids, story mode, hard mode and nightmare mode, and the rewards reflected the difficulty. To me, this is simply good design as it allows people to select and do content within their ability.
I think too many people look through their own experiences and think theirs is the way everyone plays the game, not realising there are many whom will never see the inside of any extreme or raid and are quite happy playing other parts of the game.