What's the point with that quite lackluster story in Endwalker?

[Lauront]

hot vapor

You are completely right that many gameplay features seem to have been abandoned in EW, such as exploratory content. The lack of depth is very clear to see. And as I've explained in another topic, I believe this can have long-term consequences for FF14 if there's an emergent new MMO that really pulls off PvE combat well (the fabled Riot MMO perhaps):

Even if not better at combat, I'm hoping some of the newer/upcoming MMOs eat into XIV's numbers (although I don't think sites like LB are giving an accurate picture of paying subs because there's ways these can be inflated, e.g. through FLCs; we'll see how their Q2 accounts reflect on the game's performance) by being as good/better in other areas, if only to snap SE out of this complacence it's currently mired in. There does come a point (where I'm at, really) where I'd sooner just not play an MMO than play from a selection that just doesn't draw me in in any way.

Problem is a lot of its competitors seem to find ways to self-immolate. I'm hoping Blue Protocol isn't too badly mangled by either of AGS or Namco.