We've definitely played a different FFXI. Did you fight Provenance Watcher? Lol slow paced. The only "slow paced" bosses were the original rank missions bosses, every expansion the bosses were a lot more active to the point you had to be on your toes.
By the way, FFXI being "slow paced" still had nothing to do with the servers being in Japan, because those servers were a hell of a lot more optimized than XIV's.
Ironically, you say you belittle no one's opinions..yet as usual, you do whenever XI is mentioned.