The problem is not what ff9 is, but what ff8 and ff7 were.
ff7 is excellent from any point of view: characters, fight system (materia, we use the name "materia" in ff14 and there weren't materia in 1.0), world, story development (everyone cried when Aerith...)
ff8 is another excellent game: characters, fight system, side game (we have the card game in ff14!), story etc
ff9 is not excellent. it's another great and fun game of the golden age of squaresoft- square enix, but there is nothing memorable.
MoP is a Great expansion, full of things to do, humor, wonderful dungeons and raids BUT we were expecting something different after Tbc, wotlk and cataclysm, let's say we were expecting "legion".