I truly don't understand why WoW has always gotten hate for no real reason, even from people who never played it. I guess it's cool to hate things that are popular.

WoW DOES a lot of things better (even if FFXIV does a lot of things better than WoW), and don't kid yourselves, both are the same kind of themepark, FFXIV is hardly unique and "untainted" next to it. There's literally no reason not to take inspiration from the things it does better.

Like actual epicness in dungeons/raids, sure FFXIV looks beautiful, but where are the loud boss quotes ? Where's the immersive architecture beyond circular arenas on a beautiful backdrop ? Don't get me wrong, FFXIV still offers great presentation with its boss music and everything, but it pales compared to how I feel when I raid in WoW.

Also actually open areas with things to do ? Not just there for the MSQ ? WoW adds them all the time and stuff like the Isle of Thunder or the newly added Argus are miles ahead of any non-instanced content SE added in HW. I'm tired of having nothing to do beyond going into instances in this game. Just things to do at all that isn't crafting. WoW added solo challenges specific to the spec with Legion, I loved that. I also like that they often give something cool to some classes to do, like some rare pet taming challenges for Hunters or the green fire Warlock quest. FFXIV has the WHM unicorn quest and that's it. Even not bound to class, just look up the guides for the Lucid Nightmare mount or Kosumoth the Hungering. Pet battles are also infinitely more fun to get into than whatever LoV was supposed to be.

Maybe make the world feel more alive too and less mechanical ? More items to use for fun like gliders or transformative potions, less invisible walls, less clunky movement, etc.

And please, PLEASE, fix the server infrastructure, the "muh servers" excuse is getting extremely old. No true open world, no real inventory increase (something WoW has no issues at all doing every single expansion), no glamour book, no improvement to character creation beyond the billion hairstyles. I'd even take a long while of no content if it means the game gets better down the line.

I could go on and on. Sure, WoW does plenty I hate, like class streamlining, removal of content for exclusivity, titanforging, random legendaries, etc. but to say FFXIV has nothing to gain from it is either being a blind fanboy or wanting FFXIV to wallow in mediocrity.