It's kinda why PF was introduced, a convenient means to advertise your intentions. I'm in agreement that it's the way to go for blind runs since I'm in the same boat when it comes to the current generation's "bro just watch a guide lol" mentality. I tend to only look at a raidplan when a mechanic is genuinely confusing to me, but most of my experience in Savage which comes from this expansion was finding most mechanics to be sight-readable in one form or another. It taught me to keep a closer watch on my party list, debuffs and the boss' cast bar & hp % throughout a fight. I will NEVER spoil a 4th fight phase transition for myself though, seeing them blind is some of the most fun I've had in my time playing XIV.

I can sympathize with feeling inadequate due to circumstances you can't help. I've got my fair share, but the worst part of raiding for me was seeing friends just give up because they felt inadequate on the last fights of the first two tiers. To me, them getting that far proves that we all had what it took to see it through but we just never did. This tier I've been alone which is just discouraging and by the time I got to 11, there were no PFs for it for several weeks so I've kinda just been doing other stuff like title grinds and Mentor roulette to kill time.

My main shortcoming there is that I just don't have as much fun when I'm raiding alone vs being with 7 like-minded friends who, as you put it, would spend up to 3 months (P3S my beloved) smashing their heads with me against those walls where breaking through after so much effort felt more vindicating than most challenges I've toppled in other games.