Buttons need to be trimmed down in this game by at least a lot. A good place to start is consolidating buttons that have no business being separate because they're already mutually exclusive abilities (for example Blizzard IV/Fire IV on BLM or Summon/Enkindle on SMN)
And I maintain that patterns are overused in FFXIV. If you know the fight well it feels easy but if you don't it's frustrating. It's probably not something I'm doing a good job explaining. I guess maybe it's that FFXIV pve is more proactive (know where to be) while, say, WoW is more reactive (respond to the unexpected and get yourself back into the fight). Obviously there are reactive mechanics in FFXIV and proactive ones in WoW but in general they each lean heavily on proactive pattern recognition and reactive chaos.
I personally prefer pve in WoW, it seems more accessible and definitely has a lower skill floor but a waaay higher ceiling with the people at the top being part of a world wide esport. That said, FFXIV's rotations in WoW would make WoW impossible. I'm imagining doing the summoner rotation on heroic Jaina and it's making my eyes cross.