Quote Originally Posted by Kaurhz View Post
For a little more of a detailed answer, for many players they had been playing when the game demanded a lot out of you, so it was capable of keeping you occupied for very extensive periods of time, and this was even without needing to diversify your content consumption. For instance in the days of HW/SB, you could comfortably just do crafting, and nothing but crafting (and it would keep you entertained and occupied outside of the number dopamine that consumes modern crafting). The game generally speaking would demand your attention a lot more, and for people looking for that, it was an amazing game, I am one such example.

The game since then has streamlined more, so activities like crafting no longer really demand what it used to, but is now a much more approachable content type.. Obviously this is something else where it's very much preferential.. Do you want something that you feel like you can drown in? Do you want something that you can maybe play a couple hours here and there on a weekday.
Part of that is also the community though. Back in the day we didn't have tools like Teamcraft that could sim and custom build entire rotations for you to 100% your craft every time. You had to learn the interplay and push and pull between the various crafting states and maximize your resources to HQ your crafts. Yes we had more HQ mats and such, but the system overall hasn't changed much.

The community goes out of its way to simplify everything into a rote and direct way of doing things and then complains when SE takes that as feedback that we want things simplified.

Needless to say, you can't make everyone happy all the time.

OP, if you're having fun, simply keep playing and maybe consider joining an FC or one of the various XIV Discords for tips and tricks and community. The forums are where people come to yell at SE.