I've seen some people claim that the (potential) 7.5 Ultimate will save the expansion, but that's far from realistic. Ultimates cater to 5% of the playerbase when they're current. Some streamers argue that these fights could revive interest based on their viewer numbers, but more casual and midcore players don't need an active FFXIV subscription to watch Twitch.

Even if Ultimates had more appeal, it's easy to see why they wouldn't "save" anything in the bigger picture. By the time we get the 7.5 Ultimate, we should already be playing the next expansion. In fact, we should be on patch 8.05, with a new Savage tier. The 2.5-year expansion cycle was introduced during the pandemic, but Square Enix choosing to stick with it is one of the biggest things holding FFXIV back right now.