Well XIV was always that it followed WoW which casualize the MMO sphere & XIV followed Yoshida has always regarded XIV as a Single player FF first and an MMO second, it's not XIV changed it's XIV headed to where Yoshida always wanted it to be something Mainline SP fans could hop in & engage as little as possible with MMO elements as the tech & teams gotten better they continue to push it further for single player friendliness.
If wanted MMO XIV you're out luck that Tanaka got fired & replaced with Yoshida as 1.x was literally just a HD XI, had 1.x not been hell & Tanaka remained in charge XIV would be a small community but hardcore MMO.