Thematic issues. Why all the sci fi.

[kaynide]

Except for the fact that these tribes are pretty much isolated from the rest of the world and don't interact with cultures outside their own, so their exposure to technology is mostly limited to what they've known for centuries.

I don't have a dog in this fight, but a more apt "but these people don't accept modern tech" would be more applicable to, say: the Amish, African tribes, the Bedouins tribes of the middle east, or perhaps the Mongolian nomads. In most cases it's that their lifestyle just doesn't need the tech in question, they're entirely unaware of the tech or they accept certain/specific tech that assimilates to their way easily.

In the case of Gridania, I see it as an Amish situation. They don't want black powder because it'll make the elementals mad. Bows and spears make sense here, sourced from local materials.

Ul'dah similarly is run by essentially a mob. You wouldn't want your population to have high tech to become a threat to you.

Limsa honestly doesn't really make sense, unless we get some kinda weird lore retcon that actual inertial energy (aka projectiles) can beat magic shields, whereas lasers bounce off. Unless the cost of magic energy (Ceureleum/crystals) is high/unreasonable at a large scale. But then again, we have literal teleporters, and teleporters that can send without attunement so why are we even shipping things by boat at this point is beyond me.

None of this even mentioning the building-sized 3D printers we have on the moon. That's where the game is bonkers to me. How is anyone homeless at this point? or starving?