Quote Originally Posted by Vyrerus View Post
Also XI did it much differently. Its expansions weren't continuations of one another, ever. They could be done simultaneously or out of release order completely.
This is not true. While you could start the other expansions non-sequentially, CoP is meant to be a continuation of the story set in the vanilla game and continued with RotZ and as you said, they’re tied together at the end, requiring completion of both because they are part of the same story. I heard nothing at all about CoP being meant to “uplift a weaker expansion”. They’re all tied to the Crystal War, the Shadow Lord, and the Ancient conspiracy of the Zilart in relation to paradise and Altana/Promathia. Besides WotG, the other main expansions did their own thing completely separate from the others minus a revelation that Odin had a hand with the Shadow Lord.

It seems like you keep trying to establish your own conjectures as facts. Just like how Endwalker WAS a conclusion - to the Hydaelyn/Zodiark arc. The greater arc is over, the villains have been laid to rest. Rejoinings cannot happen anymore and the Garleans will not invade Eorzea. The devs themselves have said this was an ending.

ToAU and SoA were separate stories but had some ties to the old world just as DT does because they still exist in the same world. If it didn’t, then it may as well have been a separate game.