The end of ARR will forever be the high-water mark for FFXIV, to me

[Bonoki]

I do think the state of being on the run was a great idea for ARR to set up a new expansion. It's a shame we have come so far that something like that would no longer be possible to do a second time for another expansion. The WoL has grown so much that it really wouldn't make sense anymore for government policies to hinder us.

This right here. They even managed to almost turn sharlayan into a stereotypical anime highschool at some points. If realm reborn was remade by these same writers the story in ul'dah would most likely have cutscenes of us shopping for jewelry and carpets and some Aladdin tropes and the like.

The animation team is just really proud of the levels of animation they can include nowadays. Which can only really be expressed through the slice of life kind of moments. That's why we suddenly have so many meal scenes. Also, it's one of the few things that has left at being able to show the characters bonding outside of saving the world to make them still feel a sense of normalcy.