Quote Originally Posted by Arkdra View Post
Be the change you want to see in the world and just do some random fates while progressing the patch msq. Like, I am broadly with you in the sense that I think if you just burn MSQ, the game's pacing flies out the window and it sucks. But much to my chagrin, the majority of players treat this game like a visual novel and want to engage with the systems to the absolute minimum they possibly can.
I think other games handle this by having more reasons to be our and about without telling you exactly where stuff is. Gathering can happen while in a combat job, Rare monsters, chests, events can happen. There are more hiding places for things. Mob density is higher allowing you to fight a bunch of stuff at once.

FFXIV areas are also very open with few large structures for you to explore. Where are the caves? The insides of caves and pyramids? Large buildings and structures? Dense canopies where you can't see the sky?

I think the large areas with low density of creatures and structures makes the world feel less interesting. Between that and nothing to surprise why go to the over world?