[Spoiler] Did they forget Porxies exist?

[Cleretic]

I feel like they're going to need a plot reason as to why the rest of Etheirys can't just start grabbing electrope and leap forward a thousand years in technology, and being around it causing serious health issues (especially in people not used to it) would be a good excuse.

You're assuming they want it.

Remember, high-tech isn't exactly a foreign concept in most of the world; the Garlean Empire was a thing, and it was a thing for long enough that even before they fell and stopped trying to conquer and subjugate the planet, general society had a chance to pick up some of their tricks. And you know what they picked? Airships, and one Ishgardian gun club.

Eorzean society already had a chance to step up their technological game, and they said 'no' then, too. That's kinda the funny thing about a magical setting: in the real world a technological leap can just be objectively better, but in a world where magical teleportation exists does a motorbike really have that much to offer?