Is anyone else not really enjoying themselves?

[koko-on-da-forumz]

I play MMOs because I want to be part of a big, multiplayer, persistent world.

FFXIV has not been this since 1.0. Any feeling you had that this was the case comes from inexperience with the game and your own expectations with the genre. Even in ARR there really was very little to do in the game outside of very non-persistent instances. It's a visual novel with a raid sim attached.

If you want a big, multiplayer, persistent world, play Guild Wars 2 or Final Fantasy XI. I'd be thrilled to get you started in either because actually playing them in the open world with other people is a lot of fun and not just hand-holding from point A to point B.