Almost into 7.3, what you think about the *improved* encounter design?

[Daralii]

I don't consider this a valid argument.
People will optimize the fun out of everything, especially in our current age of easily accessible information. That doesn't mean you just give up and design your content around them, because all you've now achieved is that you made it stale and boring for everyone.

We're seeing it with dungeons, we've seen it with Endwalker's giant hitboxes because "optimized players have full uptime anyway" and we see it with the current job design.

I know WoW has this problem with it's dungeons, the way Mythic+ works is the exact reason why it's been exacerbated. Of course you will use the most optimal route when you have to finish within a strict time limit.

The trash mobs in WoW's dungeons also have actual mechanics. Even if it's mostly interrupts, dispels, and purges, it's at least more than modern XIV has.