Wow 36 pages. Not going to read all of them lol
Anyways, here are my 0.02.

First of all, message to FFXIV Andies : Stop blindly defending FFXIV - it is an excellent game that can stand on its own two feet. No need to try to convince someone who for some reason not into it/got tired of it. Don't become the Star Citizen cult that scouts the internet looking for any negative opinion of their vaporware and then descends on it like pack of vultures. If you go to any of the forums of the trash pvp gankbox "games" the first thing their denizens will tell you is "not a game for you" - and this should really be your only response. The beauty and brilliance of the FFXIV design is that it can easily function with minimum number of players - unlike your typical sweaty gankbox it isn't reliant on player generated content, so there is no need to try and win over folks who don't want to be here.

Secondly, I see the the usual "game is too easy" opinions floating around in this very discussion. This is normal. I haven't yet seen any game (even Dark Souls/Elden Ring) where someone hasn't declared it "too easy". You always going to have people who are generally good at pressing buttons at the right time and no-lifers who can grind/practice 16 hours per day, and to them any and every game will be too easy. This is normal and expected. It is on SE to balance the needs of this minority with the needs of the casual majority and so far they have been doing an excellent job doing it.