Stormblood's missed opportunity.

[Vidu]

Hamlet was from FFXIV 1.0.

I love events like these, and this year's The Rising event really got my nostalgic juices flowing. It was disappointing that it was relegated to an instance, though. Everything in this game is instanced, and the world feels very barren as a result.

Oh, my mistake - doesnt change the fact though that I dont believe open world content like that will really work in this game. And that nostalgia is getting the better of people who want it back.
I might be biased, because I already dislike FATEs so much, but those are actually kinda showing me why this doesnt work. I remember to many times when it was 3 in the morning and Odin or Ixion spawned - and it was only 10 people around. I'm still missing that achievment from the Coeurl-Queen-FATE because is just impossible to get her to spawn and have enough people around.
And sometimes (...or actually quite often) I want to play at 3 am and I want to make progress at 3 am. Or progress on some old stuff - Odin-FATEs are impossible on my server now, because no one cares anymore.
Instances solve this problem - even at 3 am I'm finding enough people for most content. Even Sastasha gets people through roulettes.

I get the whole "the world feels barren"-thing and its a bit sad, granted... but I take it over the alternative every day. Personally, I dont want open world content that really has an impact on ones progression. I dont want to rely on "hopefully are enough people in this area right now".

[Evogolist]

Oh, my mistake - doesnt change the fact though that I dont believe open world content like that will really work in this game. And that nostalgia is getting the better of people who want it back.

I used both 1.0's Hamlet defense and XI's campaign battles as an example, but even with them I wondered why something like that wasn't added. It definitely helps add to the immersion/illusion that we're in the middle of fighting with the Garlean's to liberate Doma and Ala Mhigo. My biggest worry would be like you stated, player's needing incentive to continue doing the content. Players would need something so that the content doesn't run dry after everyone has gotten what they need from it. Something like area buffs such as increased exp from normal mobs/fates, increased exp for crafters and gathers, stat buffs and so forth. The only way to keep that up would be for players to continue participating in the content.