We need to talk about the PC Gamer article

[CNitsah]

This. People forget that this is FINAL FANTASY XIV. The whole selling point of the game is that you can go play other games. In fact, for just $13/month you can play all the other games you want (sold separately). This isn’t like WoW which enslaves you and forces you to play. FFXIV is the perfect MMO for those who play one weekend a year, so for those people, the game is absolutely flawless.

The entirety of SB and ShB patch content goes against that narrative it's just for those people. They used to known some kind of farm/shelf content was useful. Why would they lock the beast tribe quest to 3 a day if that was the case? they would allow to do 12 of the same, and wouldn't cap the tomestones to 450 if their goal was to let people get everything at their own pace. No, shelf content is the backbone of mmo, and without it, it's not a mmo anymore.

I would also add that the critics about EW patches cycle are not compared to other games or out of the blue, they're made with the previous extensions in mind. It's critics compared to the game former state. Which makes the Wow argument out of place. Did you feel feel enslaved by SB and ShB?