I'm paying a little under 200€ a year for the game and while thats certainly a lot of money over the past 12 years at this point, I think I'm absolutly getting my moneys worth - I dont know about the relative value of 36 AUSD, so a little difficult to compare, but a little over 15€ a month seems like a very fair price fo rthe amount of entertainment the game provides for me.

To answer the question what that entertainment is... well, first of all I'm still very interested in the lore and story of the game! Then there are the friends I play with, specially a little casual static. But also: FFXIV is very "cozy" - by which I mean: I know the game so well, I know the mechanics so well, I know most systems so well that its very relaxing for me to play the game. If I feel like playing a game but I'm limited on time or energy, FFXIV is a great fall back. An hour isnt enough for me to get into a new game, but if an hour is all I have, I can always find something to do in Eorzea. Thats in part why I dont understand people complaining about the game being to much of the same over and over again - for me thats part of the appeal, to be honest. If I want something different, I can pick one of the hundreds of untouched games in my Steam library... but at least I dont want different things all the time, I quite enjoy the comfort of knowing what to do, what to expect (to a certain degree) and being able to have stuff to do in the game that allows me to make a little bit of progress in 30 minutes, while having the option to keep me busy for hours (raiding, farming, decorating) at the same time.

So I'd say I'm paying my subscription for my "comfort game".