Actual lore regarding the current civilizations on Meracydia (potential spoilers)

[Cleretic]

Anyway I don’t think eastern fans will take kindly to an entire expansion of colonialism in the Americas or a setting entirely inspired by African tribes or Australia. You can choose to ignore this fact and promptly watch the catastrophe unfold, or you can give people what they clearly are telling you they want to see.

I don't think you know what a fact is. Gut vibes are not facts, and you have provided no evidence beyond them.

Again, last page I posted the actual highest sales figures of all Final Fantasy games, which run the gamut of aesthetics, including places I'm sure you'd have written off like the Middle Eastern XII or the Polynesian X. If you want a more Japan-centric result, there was a survey conducted last year in Japan, held by Japan's public broadcaster. Over 400k votes cast, so it's a pretty big sample size. Their answers for the top ten most popular FF games, along with my overall description of their setting:

1. Final Fantasy X (Polynesian)
2. Final Fantasy VII (cyberpunk)
3. Final Fantasy VI (steampunk)
4. Final Fantasy IX (Northern Europe and Southern Asia)
5. Final Fantasy XIV (mishmash)
6. Final Fantasy V (classical fantasy)
7. Final Fantasy VIII (Mostly modern, some ancient Egypt and Greece)
8. Final Fantasy IV (classical fantasy)
9. Final Fantasy XI (mishmash)
10. Final Fantasy XV (Modern Americana)

Again, all over the place. We do see a bit of classical fantasy further down the list, but remember that we're talking about a series with fifteen games; the lower end of a top ten is less 'widespread favorites' and more the middle of the pack.

Incidentally, this survey also included favorite characters, which gives us an idea of which ones in that list were actually top-of-mind for people versus the ones that were just generally not hated enough to be put down the bottom.

1. Cloud (VII)
2. Yuna (X)
3. Aeris (VII)
4. Vivi (IX)
5. Zidane (IX)
6. Emet-Selch (XIV)
7. Tidus (X)
8. Lightning (XIII)
9. Tifa (VII)
10. Zack (VII)

On top of interesting details here like Lightning apparently being more popular than her own game, since XIII isn't in the top ten at all and yet she swings into the #8 character spot, we also see that no characters from pre-VII hold on at all, despite all three of the SNES games being in the top ten. That suggests that while people are generally fond of those 'classical fantasy' games, they aren't actually widely-held favorites. (And incidentally, the one FFXIV character in that list doesn't exactly fit the 'classical fantasy' mold either.)

So, you want facts about how Japanese fans like Final Fantasy, there you have it: they like aesthetic diversity much more than they like any one specific setting. And while they don't hate a classical 'swords and castles' fantasy setting, Castle Corneria is a losing proposition for a central location compared to Midgar or Luca.