This may be a biased nostalgic view on things but you cannot deny that Heavensward was the only expansion that actually had a cohesive theme and a connected expansion of the OG continent. And while it had its edges, for me it was way and beyond anything we have right now in terms of battle and gameplay design.

The 8man raids actually still felt like raids, alliance raids actually felt threatening at times compared to the tutorial/baby mode that Myths of the realm is, the triad battles were quite unique, the post MSQ story was also insanely strong with the final steps of faith, jobs still had somewhat of an identity with encounter variance to keep you on your toes and they weren't afraid to introduce new content despite pushing out 3 jobs AND hard mode dungeons at the same time. I think this was the developer's peak in terms of passion for this game imo.

As for the story - you were lost and alone but quickly made new dear friends along the way despite all the hardship without any kind of OP Scion magicks (who at that time felt more like some snobby elite circle you had basically no relation to at all). That fireplace scene still remains one of my favourite scenes to this day. For the first time you had your OWN party, apart from the scions and it genuinely felt like it was YOUR story instead of someone elses.
It was the only expansion that felt like you were going through a classic final fantasy journey (this was also the reason Shadowbringers is also one of my favs too)


Sure things are more streamlined and refined now but at the same time, this is what many people criticize about the game these days and got tired of the same formula over and over again