Why did they stop kicking out afks like they used to

[NekoMataMata]

You guys and your crackpot theories. Literally was because EW's launch had severe population overload and people wanting to queue into the game, so they had to put in afk lockouts to accommodate for other players wanting to log in.

Its why Dynamis was created, its also a major reason why they're testing cloud servers to prevent that issue. Although really EW launched at the best time during the WoW/content creator Exodus but we'll see if Dawntrail will have that same success (not even a chance lol)

I don't see why it wouldn't have that same success on launch. The community hasn't stopped selling the game out to everyone they possibly can, and even if we're currently in a content lull, that's just the normal game cycle these days.

People hop from game to game normally, regardless of if it's single player or not. You know how everyone is constantly throwing money at single player games, switching between each latest release, dumping screenshots and videos on their socials, and whatever else? I'm pretty sure they do it for MMOs too. Retention probably won't be there after a few months, but there will be enough people logging in to make us all miserable with queue times.

[Absurdity]

I don't see why it wouldn't have that same success on launch. The community hasn't stopped selling the game out to everyone they possibly can, and even if we're currently in a content lull, that's just the normal game cycle these days.

Because the WoW exodus coinciding with Endwalker's release meant everyone and their dog was trying the game. This rush is long over so Dawntrail will most likely be back in line with every other XIV expansion launch, because most of those WoW players have experienced XIV now and gone back.
If they were all still here we would probably still be dealing with massive login queues.