Do We Remember That a Game Is Meant to Be Fun?

[Aidorouge]

Except, the game is trying pretty hard to try to appeal to everyone.

I don't know... based on current job and encounter design or hell, even just content difficulty, I get the impression Square-Enix is only trying to appeal to a limited subset of players these days.
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I wonder if the lack of interest in content nowadays is in any way related to the general player disconnect with the story and the direction they've taken it in.

I feel like Dawntrail rendered a lot of the lore, world-building and atmosphere of the past arc completely meaningless, and there are no concrete rules or boundaries governing the story anymore. The consequent lack of identity makes the game feel soulless, and without that sense of investment the often tedious reality of MMO grinding becomes more difficult to justify.

Probably depends on what people wanted out of the story. Personally for me FF14's plot started to lose the narrative in Stormblood, and fell off completely in Shadowbringers. There's a lot of people who think SHB was "peak" storytelling, but for me it was a huge valley.