Why are people settling for an "ARR Tier" story?

[Basteala]

Let's be honest, the fact that this is even a discussion when ARR was considered by far the worst part of FF14 until recently is a bad sign.

More like cutscene the visual novel. We spent multiple times more time in cutscenes than actually doing quests.

I felt more like the Wallflower of Light than an actual hero.

I mean EW was like that, too. The key difference is that EW's story was actually...good, and the WoL felt like an active participant. Those two details are very important when you have MGS4 levels of cutscenes.