For a game that supposedly about the virtue of democracy, the one long time established democracy that we spend any amount of time in - Sharlayan, is a pretty obstructionist and exclusionary place. Their immigration policy is the second most restrictive in the setting that we know of. Their political system is under the iron grip of one faction, who use the forum to impede our progress in finding out about anything that's going on there for the first half of Endwalker. They also routinely send assassins out to murder people who spread state secrets beyond their borders - and, their food sucks, which as we all know is narrative shorthand for "there is something deeply wrong with this society".

Really, for fans of democracy wank like myself, there's very little fat to chew on. No political parties, no elections, no establishment of a balance of power. Just some fledgling republics formed in the wake of their imperial yoke being removed. Nice as a way to end a story about imperial oppression, but I'd like to see what happens in a couple years as political divides are established and competing interests and powers are elected to office.

I do quite like the setting of FFXIV, and I'd rather see it develop and grow with the established nations and status quo that came about over the past ten years, rather than throwing it all away to go adventuring in some big fantasyland castle, there are other settings and franchises that do that well enough already.