Yes, this is a Final Fantasy title, but it is also of the mmo genre. It remains a single installment into the franchise regardless of how many expansions come out. SE very likely, and very hopefully learned a valuable lesson from when they released ToAU for FFXI, which changed the whole way the game was played. They lost a lot of subs, and I do mean a lot. Mine included. Each console installment was vastly different from the previous because you can do that with console games, as each one is a new and different game. It is also highly favorable as most console players don't want a sequel/prequel to be a copy/paste from the game they've already played and beaten.

Even amongst the console games, some FF titles felt more like Final Fantasy than others. From the job systems of FFI, FFIV, and FFIX; the materia system from FFVII; the junction system from FFVIII, or the progression grid from FFX, each title had a different engine that drove those games. I like FFXIV. I want to continue to play FFXIV. Of course I want them to continue to improve the game, and even take some risks here and there. But I want them to do absolutely nothing that jeopardizes the integrity of this game.

I didn't start FFXIV until well into 3.0. I always knew it was out there, and I would watch videos of the fights against the primals. I was reluctant to sub because of SE's grave mistake with FFXI. Yoshi's tears when he was talking about reviving the 1.0 failure is what won me over. Two years later I am far more invested in XIV than I ever was in XI. I, along with many, many, many other subscribers have placed a lot of money and trust in SE to not make another fatal error and I am sure they are quite aware of this.