I quit during the Free trial during ARR, and came back a year later to 4k+ hours of gaming

So I will definetly chime in to agree. ARR has its importance as a base for the wordbuilding, but it doesnt excuse it for being so painfully boring to slog trough

As a XIVDiscussion post brought it up, the game could use some new content added to Old Expacs in the way of side activities or opening deep dungeons at earlier levels (while still having you sync up) to keep new players engaged

Heck, even adding 1 or 2 new Gold Saucer fully developed minigames could go a long way to keep you engaged between MSQ sessions