The reason why FFXIV is so boring and not fun to play anymore is because

[Voidmage]

In the end it all boils down to the devs seemingly making a game they don't even seem to be interested anymore.
Either that, they don't play it themselves anymore or Yoshidas extreme excel sheet timeline doesn't allow them any freedom.
No one can tell me that they log into the game see Viera not being able to wear hats and go "yes I am proud to be part of that" or Yoshida playing DT and saying "Yes, this is the best story we could have written".

Yoshida and Co should honestly do a "best practice" and play other games like they did in the past.
The only ones who still seem to have fun working in this game seem to be the music and graphics department (the later because of how they handled the feedback and because I can actually see the improvements personally).

At least that's my opinion after how half assed island sanctuary was, the Hrothgar hair debacle (you know the one that deleted the ears and had them smiling on camera only to be able to deliver when getting laughed at on twitter?), the absolute no idea how mmo's work with criterion or how they completely keep ignoring feedback only acting when the media catches up with it (like with the oversimplified EW content).
You can tell that their idea of an mmo is "fight a boss in an arena" and nothing more.