Endwalker is the lowest point of this game since 1.0

[fulminating]

Thing is I only feel HW and ARR stuff was considered "hard" due to lack of player experience with the game. 6+ years in normal content probably won't feel as crazy to said person/people. There's also the savage debate ofc but thas for a different camp than myself these days.
EW to me has hit a nice sweet spot ... Savage, Unreal, Ultimate.

That is a factor too of course, but I think the simplified rotations and their bloated potencies have not really been of benefit, particularly in old content. Storm’s eye for example was 270 potency and by 5.5 hit 420. Currently it’s sitting at 440 caster potency which is greater still I think, but could have that backwards. It just doesn’t seem to have any benefit to me, particularly for those who want to dip their toes into higher end content. The extreme step up in difficulty and personal responsibility from none to some in a lot of cases is quite stark. I find the normal & alliance raids most fun on day 1, the former before everyone has a chance to outgear and do it without thinking.

As for the tonal shift that's for the better imo. Many things in ARR and even some aspects of HW are very one dimensional

Funnily enough that’s how I’d have described the more recent entries, everything collapsing in under the weight of friendship and saccharine veneer. The more* grounded world before it became a theme park for the centre of the universe. Yeah the ff3 raids were in arr, but I like ff3.