It wasn't. I played in ARR, and it really wasn't. It's not just the QoL- as cute as lining in Limsa to queue for coils, the lack of DF or proper roulettes, or something as simple as the teleporters being properly labeled (I still now where the Quarrymill or Camp Drybone are because there was no indication that they were in the South Shroud or the Eastern Thanalan before) all amounted to a very tedious and grating gaming experience. Also, losing your Heavy Thrust buff because you missed a positional (or, worse, because it was a cinematic during which the boss became untargetable, messing up your rotation) was not fun. DRG magic def memes, horrid netcode with a NA server for EU players...
You can defend HW and SB to a degree, but ARR really didn't age well.
I understand the current negative sentiment towards DT, but let's not be revisionist and pretend ARR was perfect.