I completely agree that FFXIV’s ‘gear progression’ (if you can call it progression, it’s more of a cycle) is boring and uninspired. You could even be very harsh and call it sheer laziness. But the developers will not ever change the way it works, not in 4.5 nor 8.5. Main reason being that they don’t want people for more than a short period of time (which seems counterintuitive considering this is a sub based game but idk much about gaming business).

Personally, I don’t see why ‘horizontal’ progression has to mean endless year-round grinding. Surely it can be adjusted and altered to fit the FFXIV philosophy? Just because a similar system was in XI doesn’t mean they can’t adapt it