So I'm probably going to repeat several things due to not having 23 pages of context, but I like the idea behind the market wards. That being said, they definitely need a bit of work in my opinion.

First off, people have been complaining left and right about "copy-pasted terrain", and yet there is no greater offender than the market wards themselves. What we have right now are closed off segments that lack variety on everything save for what kind of floorboards they use, and I think this is a pretty big deal in the immersion department. When I'm in the southern islands in Limsa, it should be an open-air marketplace with maybe a stone fountain in a section, and outcrops from which I can see birds, ships, the sky or the ocean. When at the lotus gardens in Gridania, I should see trees over the different stands and maybe some small animals or something wandering around the ground. I'm not saying stick every retainer in one huge zone, as that would be a lag/dev nightmare, but redesigning the zones themselves might make people a bit more comfortable with shopping there.

Fix the aesthetics of the area, and make people WANT to go there.