Raiders, why do you consider raiding just not memory games ?

[ovIm]

This is exactly how it is, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. It's not everyone's cup of tea, but it is still quite fun if you enjoy that kind of thing. The higher the tier of difficulty you go up, the more you and your team have to work to win. It's the same reason why some people love the Souls games and some people hate the Souls games. At its core, the game just presents you with attack patterns you have to learn how to navigate while doing as much damage as possible. Some people even decide they want to speed run those games, which would be akin to farming a fight in FFXIV. Everyone knows that, say, waterfowl dance is just a series of attack patterns you have to memorize and dodge, but that doesn't make it easy. And the sense of joy you get when you finally succeed is still every bit as real even though it's always the same.

There is a distinct thing where this comparison is lacking though - in Soulsborne games, you learn attack patterns, yes, but they do not always loop the same way, and are generally shorter and smaller.
Whenever I engage, say Malenia (since you mention waterfowl), the fight usually never plays out the same twice in a row. While her attacks have a pattern, the entire fight is more interactive. Did I get hit? If so, can I heal without provoking a heal punish from the boss? Whats my own build, how do I tackle the fight, do I tank some attacks, focus on dodging, or generally try and use ranged attacks primarily? Etc etc.
The fights in FFXIV are a lot more static in comparison, and imho, lack the same excitement in learning those learning patterns and applying what I learned. YMMV, of course.

[Starrya]

There is a distinct thing where this comparison is lacking though - in Soulsborne games, you learn attack patterns, yes, but they do not always loop the same way, and are generally shorter and smaller.
Whenever I engage, say Malenia (since you mention waterfowl), the fight usually never plays out the same twice in a row. While her attacks have a pattern, the entire fight is more interactive. Did I get hit? If so, can I heal without provoking a heal punish from the boss? Whats my own build, how do I tackle the fight, do I tank some attacks, focus on dodging, or generally try and use ranged attacks primarily? Etc etc.
The fights in FFXIV are a lot more static in comparison, and imho, lack the same excitement in learning those learning patterns and applying what I learned. YMMV, of course.

They obviously have some differing aspects, not the least of which is speed. By virtue of the fact that eight people have to do the dance at the same time in FFXIV compared to one in Souls games, everything is slowed down, which might make it feel a lot more boring to some, but while you are learning the fights, questions very similar to the ones you have to ask for Souls games come up in much the same way. The same mechanic comes up each fight, yes, but this time I got the red debuff instead of the blue one, or I got the tether this time instead of the marker. Did someone die to avoidable damage? Oh, I don't have swift, can I res them without taking avoidable damage myself? I'm playing on a different role this week, now I'm a tank. Do I know where to position the boss? Do I know where I need to use my mitigation? Should I use my invuln here or there? Do I sacrifice some uptime to be safe on this mechanic that I could just do from range as healer, or go for the extra GCD? Wait, tanks get a GREEN debuff! What's this? I've never gotten it on my healer clears.

I agree that especially in normal and even extreme content, you'll probably be able to plug in your formula to solve the fight, and once you do, it may lose its luster faster than a Souls boss, but there are still quite a few interesting decisions to make while you're learning.

[ovIm]

They obviously have some differing aspects, not the least of which is speed. By virtue of the fact that eight people have to do the dance at the same time in FFXIV compared to one in Souls games, everything is slowed down, which might make it feel a lot more boring to some, but while you are learning the fights, questions very similar to the ones you have to ask for Souls games come up in much the same way. The same mechanic comes up each fight, yes, but this time I got the red debuff instead of the blue one, or I got the tether this time instead of the marker. Did someone die to avoidable damage? Oh, I don't have swift, can I res them without taking avoidable damage myself? I'm playing on a different role this week, now I'm a tank. Do I know where to position the boss? Do I know where I need to use my mitigation? Should I use my invuln here or there? Do I sacrifice some uptime to be safe on this mechanic that I could just do from range as healer, or go for the extra GCD? Wait, tanks get a GREEN debuff! What's this? I've never gotten it on my healer clears

None of those things change the order of what happens though, is what I mean when I say the encounter is much more static. The debuffs always come at x Seconds passed, y Seconds later you get tethers, z Seconds later there is a tank buster. Always, and every time, without fail. Sure you may get tethered to another player than before, but that does not always change your movement. There may be a body check that just stops progression until everyone is perfect. Every group worth their salt pre plans their mitigations too, mapping out exactly what defensive to use, so thats for naught. All offensive cooldowns are already mapped because of the 120s damage buff mold of each class.
A some point, you will have experienced every minor variation (if there even are some). Then the fight plays out always the same, its predictable in a way Soulsborne bosses are not.

So really, learning a fight in Soulsborne Games and learning a fight in FF14 have almost nothing in common imho.

ETA:
its not just that, the examples I have given are not just how you interact with the encounter, it also changes how the encounter reacts to you. FF14 bosses do not really react to you outside of giving you the occasional debuff for standing in stupid. Yet, the distance you have, the attacks you do, all change how a boss interacts with you as the player. Malenia simply sidestep-dodges magic if you just spam it, for example. Its an entirely different experience to FF14 raiding.
The most interactive thing I have seen in the past few years in this game is Llymlaen giving you a spear shaped middle finger if you dare to /dote on her.

[NaoSen]

I'd probably do hard content if a different raiding type existed (The current is enjoyed by many, no need to take that away from them), my perception in progression makes me class a static as essential yet at the same time I don't know if I'd either have the will or be fresh enough to commit to a statics schedule so I don't raid. That's a me problem though, EX3 would've been perfect for me if a prog point existed before ice for example.

My view on the FF raid experiance.


General Progression Experience:
Mechanic A's success rate sits at 0%, group clicks and gets excited when seeing Mechanic B for the first time.
Morale increases, sense of achievement kicks in.
Start seeing Mechanic B happen more and more, achievement enjoyment starts to drop.
A thresholds hits where this enjoyment is no longer there, what was once enjoying to pass is now annoying, you're basically guaranteed to get to Mechanic B now.
Frustration of Mechanic B is amplified by Mechanic A having become trivial.
Pass Mechanic B
Mixture of relief and achievement, potentially happier that no longer stuck on Mechanic A than passing Mechanic B
Either duration of group or just brain getting tired from repetition kicks in
Start failing mechanic A again.
Call it for the night
Repeat

Group Cascading Failure:
The more points you have to progress through the higher individual failure's impact becomes, this can cause experienced people to leave statics or clear it with other's instead which in turn makes the original static's experience potentially worse if a less competent replacement is found.

The PF Experience:
Success only if entire groups competence is high enough, person RNG becomes a factor now.