I'm giving the game until 6.3~ and its minor patches to turn around in any capacity.

At this point, I'd simply be satisfied with the story getting better - instead of it continuing on this downward trend of sanitizing any problematic elements, defanging certain places or peoples, getting rid of any and all conflict via use of the WoL nuke, and never giving its long-time cast of characters a well-earned break so that we could have some new faces and personalities rotating in and out. Ultimately, I played all these years primarily for the story; the game has had a building list of problems, a death by a thousand cuts, but I ignored them or grit my teeth about them for the sake of the story I loved - up until it got flushed down the toilet with Endwalker. Without the story, there is very little keeping me invested in the game enough to play it.

I haven't decided yet whether I'll fully unsub come time, or if I'll simply yeet my extra retainers into the nether and delete all my characters except the one that has no real strong ties to any lore or area that the game has, or will, screw up. Easier to RP someone like that, at this point. My other main and longest-lived RP character has found new life and lore in ESO and WoW, so while I'll be sad to let go of her here, at least her entire backstory and lore in those games won't get torn apart because we can't have dangerous places or consequences in this one anymore. Deleting everyone save my main would let me drop down to an entry-level sub and pay bare minimum to SE.

Considering all the game really has to offer anymore is gpose and glamour, I may as well treat it like the bloated photography platform it is and pay a minimum sub to continue using it for that. Not that I've really had that much desire to do even that little, lately.

I've found more enjoyment in other games, and feel they are more worth 15$ a month subs than FFXIV has been in a long while. SE's continuing trend of bad decisions and poor content doesn't give me any hope for the future to get brighter. At least Blizzard is kind of trying, with Dragonflight; amazing what a massive loss in profits and unobstructed critique and complaints will do to get a company to pay attention.

Perhaps one day SE will get there.