lol you just proved my point. This seems to be a discussion about open-world DUNGEONS, not open-world CONTENT, in general. The two aren't mutually exclusive. XIV can have nothing BUT instanced dungeons, and still manage to incorporate all the "vast, thriving, open-world content on the side." XI already did it.
I ADORED FFXI, and agree that the open-world content was very enjoyable....but like Jinko said, most of XI's ***dungeons*** were "instanced." Try to think of anything in XI that is like the Strong Holds in XIV. I played the game, off and on, for about 5 years.
And I can't think of anything. So, what's there to complain about?
Take your firey resolve to make XIV more like XI to the threads that really need it. I'll post a few for you (naturally, some of them are mine lol, but oh well):
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...-do-you-prefer
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...-point-in-time...
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...FXIV-additions.
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...OLL-(Favorites)