The current duty experience in XIV

[Absurdity]

I started at ARR, and no one has ever reported me? Sounds like a skill issue :v

Also, it's not the report that causes ppl to get sent to jail but when the GM reviews the said report and decides yes, you did break TOS and then the punishment hits.

If you started in ARR you should also know that the TOS changed significantly around 2018.

Before that point it was for example actually pretty common to tell people exactly why they're getting kicked from a PF party.
Fast forward to the new TOS and you just kick people in complete silence or even worse the entire party simply disbands. Everyone probably knows why, but better not risk that a GM decides it falls under "offensive expression".

Even if you word it as nicely as possible, you are still technically telling someone how they should play the game.

The streamlining of jobs and duties has naturally led to the streamlining of interactions. #ChangeMyMind

It's unfortunately also a side effect of quality of life features that every modern MMO has.

Having data center-wide duty and party finder is really convenient, but it also means you care less about making connections because you're most likely never going to see that player again.
Being able to queue from anywhere means you no longer spend any time talking to your party while you wait for everyone to get to the dungeon. And as you said, the simplicity of the duties means you don't spend any time talking inside the instance either.