When I reached Shinryu I was ready to try suggestions from the subreddit. I joined a Synced content Discord, opened a PF, and even used Yell in Limsa and Uldah to invite people into the capstone fight (a strategy that accorting to the subreddit works all the time). 40 minutes in PF, advertised in said Discord. Nothing, not a soul. I decided to suck it up and queue in DF, and try to ask the friendliest community in MMO space to go easy because I would like to experience the capstone fight.

"Hi! This is my first time fighting Shinryu! Mind if we go easy on him so I can experience the capstone fight mechanics?"
"I don't know how to read, sorry, so I won't do whatever you asked"

So much for the friendliest community. I understand you want your tomestones, just don't be an arse about it. I said nothing, proceeded to fight. I expected nothing from Shinryu at that point and I still got dissapointed. The cherry on top?

"Unfortunate". The dude drops that before leaving.

To make it even better I enter the forums and see that people now are skipping Aglaia's balance mechanic just by playing decently, and that's still far from SB. I had hopes that content would scale better at the very least in Alliance Raids/Raids and Trials, but it seems it won't. I'm not a hardcore player, I don't even think content is necessarily "mindlessly designed" because the fights that don't instantly die are at the very least fun, it's just that the scaling is so awful that it makes fun things feel trivial, like chores. I love getting Susano and Alexander Prime in roulette; I know we are always gonna clear but the mechanics are fun and the fights are exciting. I hate getting any ARR trial not because we are always gonna clear, but because there's nothing to them.

I'm not asking for a difficulty increase, I believe the boss mechanics are good enough as they are, I'm just baffled that CBU3 and SE, with all the damn resources they get from subs and cash shop, for some unknown reason, only decided to adjust ONE capstone fight. They haven't took the time to future proof the experience and ensure that newer players till be able to learn as they play and enjoy older content. Yoshi-P once said they don't like people skipping content they worked so hard to make, but they do absolutely nothing to keep it interesting. Discord PF for EX content isn't a solution, it's just a very dirty, peeling bandaid with barely any glue left.

I'm at a point where I even doubt Yotsuyu and the Four Lords will be fun, that Omega raids won't explode, and that I would get to do Rabanastre after tomestone event ends. Just thinking that by the time I make it to EW I'll be in the exact same situation as now feels disencouraging.