Why do the bosses/raids in this game feel so lifeless?

[Roda]

For me, I was completely disconnected from this raid tier 'cause this is the only FF game I've ever cared about.

Everything was out of place fanservice that they didn't even bother trying to fit in with the world like every other bit of fanservice in the game. Alpha has definitely cemented my disinterest of any game with that style of chocobo with how horribly he was used in the raid's story.
All the primals/summons, Pheonix, Bahamut, Odin, Alexander and his pieces, Thordan and co, Cid, Biggs and Wedge, Yojimbo, they all have reasons to exist in Hydaelyn. This expansion though, every boss killed up until Omega was thematically pointless. They were fun fights, don't get me wrong, but I couldn't spare a single solitary care for any of the characters because they just never had any business existing in ffxiv's story until they were presented (except for maybe o3 and o11, but since the reason for fighting them is just Omega going "i wanna see you do the fight at them" I'm still not invested in actually fighting the monsters).

I'm REALLY hoping that for the next expansion they focus on showing us how great XIV and its setting/story is instead of riding on the coat tails of the previous games. XIV is better than that, and SB will forever be a disappointment for me because they decided to forgo building and exploring their own world in lieu of saying "hey! remember this guy??!"