Why are standards seen as a crime in this game?

[Penthea]

Having standards for players seems to a crime among this community

Why is it such a crime to have actual STANDARDS in this game?

This attitude is absolutely not unique to this game at all. I have seen this stuff in literally every multi-player game I played. There are always players who push back against having to meet a standard. This is just how some people are. People can be lazy or selfish in all aspects of life. Stop phrasing it as if it only happens in FFXIV.

In FF14, if you are a bad player, you cannot be criticized because the other person can report you for harassment and you'll probably get a warning under the new rules they implemented, and if you don't help them you get called a toxic elitist anyway.

There is a lot to be said for the method you use to point out someone's poor performance. There is a massive difference between "stop being such a ****ing noob and stack with us" and "please stop running away and stack with us when you have the red marker". Politely targeting what a person is doing wrong won't get you into trouble.

Another example is with the AoE mechanics aka the orange markers. I encounter many people that stand in them at levels 50+ because they don't realize that orange marker = bad.

It's completely mind boggling that this is considered acceptable by a large part of the community.

I'm not sure where you get this impression. Every time I have seen someone so bad that they stand in the orange all the time someone comments about it, and/or they get kicked. If it happens only once or twice in an entire dungeon most people stay silent because it's frankly not a big deal. No point in starting drama over something so minor. Everyone messes up sometimes.