FFXIV has lost it's heart

[Hallarem]

Mind you, maybe slaves is the wrong word for it, indentured servitude maybe? Something akin to Ul'dahs debt slavery. Maybe I read into that too much, but the whole notion of any nobility was struck out from the main picture. It's not that I crave darkness, but the world was written as pretty dark in ARR even, more so in Heavensward and Stormblood, Shadowbringers too and suddenly it just began softening up. So turning it suddenly into this fluffy paradise is really jarring. It's total change of tone in the worldbuilding and it doesn't fit.