For the writers of the FFXIV story

[Iscah]

...my angle is to look at the things that first Shaaloani trip is supposed to do on a functional level, and try to fix it in the smallest way. Which is:

1. Get us away from Tulliyolal so we're too late for the attack,
2. Gets us close to where the attack comes from so we still see it (technically optional, but hey, if you can you might as well)
3. Introduce us to the region that's then going to be the backdrop for getting to said source of the attack,
4. Reintroduce Estinien, if only as an 'also he's here'
5. Give us some time with Erenville

One more purpose (for better or worse) is to introduce the landscape of Shaaloani so when we get to Heritage Found we can recognise it as the same landscape elements but twisted.

Or at least bring in the tribe from the Blu quest line that's supposed to be around here.

Putting the Whalaqee in the one tiny visitable sliver of Xak Tural would make the continent feel very small. Better for them to be off somewhere in the distance.

It probably could have worked to have them as one of the robbed tribes we deal with in the battle role quests, though. The totems we're tracking down even seem to be the same concept as BLU's spell-learning totems.

[Cleretic]

Putting the Whalaqee in the one tiny visitable sliver of Xak Tural would make the continent feel very small. Better for them to be off somewhere in the distance.

It probably could have worked to have them as one of the robbed tribes we deal with in the battle role quests, though. The totems we're tracking down even seem to be the same concept as BLU's spell-learning totems.

For what it's worth, the Whalaqee do get a storyline, and a fairly decent one at that. It's just in the absolute last place you'd expect.

It's Fisher. The two 'minigame jobs' have teamed up, Fisher's storyline is about the Whalaqee's magic.