Now that DT is over ...

[CNitsah]

The entire MSQ up to the train is basically just a giant showcase of all the different tribes in the New World. You pick up more than enough of that world-building context just by running from A to B as Wuk Lamat's vassal anyway. The only thing you’re really missing out on is her endless yapping. Just enjoy the virtual muzzle you've put on her by hitting the skip button!

I always said it, the first half of EW is 5 beast tribe quests and Valigarmanda (one of the good moments of the first part) under a trenchcoat.

[Clerith]

Do people really have no standards?

When you look at the current "standard" delivered in mainstream & social media (including most tv shows, game- and movie-franchises), Dawntrail actually isn't that bad.
It also depends on the expectations you brought to the experience and how much fun you can derive from the very simple tasks we were given and the themes offered.
After all, titles like Harvest Moon and various farming simulators also still sell millions of copies.
It also makes a difference whether you simply rush through it or try to enjoy it with friends, adding some fun of your own where the content was a bit dry.
And it also matters, if the people you got with you try to do the same, or if they keep complaining, dragging everything down.

But as I said, for me personally ... many characters weren't good;
they lacked depth - and those characters who had undergone good development in earlier expansions were silenced or simply weren't there.
Nevertheless, I was so deeply immersed in the world (settings, music) and my own character (WoL)
and was able to experience everything at my own pace and without spoilers, focusing on the things I genuinely enjoyed (there were many surprises I liked),
that I consider the story experience to be "okay."
Even though it represents a low point for FF14 in terms of character development and wasted potential.

[Carighan]

When you look at the current "standard" delivered in mainstream & social media (including most tv shows, game- and movie-franchises), Dawntrail actually isn't that bad.
It also depends on the expectations you brought to the experience and how much fun you can derive from the very simple tasks we were given and the themes offered.

I wouldn't say "current". I play MMORPGs since 1999, and my expectations for MMO stories are, well, MMO stories.

It's cool when there's positive outliers, yes. GW2's attempt (if faulty) to making an NPC the main character (which DT botched a whole lot worse), Shadowbringer's NPCs and their characterization, Arcadion's everything, Endwalker's final story steps and wrap-up, DAoC's integration of myth and lore, those are awesome. But they're not required, the standard is always all the other 50000 MMO stories and their average. After all in an MMORPG, a game inherently played as a time-filler for its grind and ideally in the context of socialization and cameraderie, it has to be adequate. Subservient, even. It has to be an excuse more than anything else, a reason to see another player, meet another person, kill another boss for loot.

DT to me hence only has three big flaws, of which the last one sadly drags it down a whole, whole lot:

1. It is very obviously meant to be two stories, probably Tural for the MSQ and Alexandria for the patch story, forced together into a way too tiny space. This causes tons of flaws in both stories though the second one has the upside of now bleeding into the patch stories and hence feeling better once those patches are included.
2. Its principal evil by the nature of the first story has no big relevance to us. I also think it was a mistake to even focus on an "evil dude". A friendly competition with a positive outcome would have worked far better as a holiday story, even though it'd feel like even less things are at stake.
3. The main NPC in the first half of the story (Wuk Lamat) was a good idea, but a bad implementation. Writing an inexperienced person who grows while travelling with people is hard. More so when it's not a book you're writing, but a video game. More so if this NPC then has to become the hero of a story (though IMO it worked by the time we got to the Interphos, but that's a bit late!). Even GW2 with its far better approach with Trahearne struggled and ultimately failed with this, and at the very least I would have expected the devs to learn from this and not attempt it. The underlying story didn't need a hero. Like I said in (2), I also feel it didn't need a villain. It'd work perfectly fine as a lighthearted "competition" to a holiday story. This is sad because I love Bryer's voicework (and I am happy they re-did her Interphos lines, no clue wtf the audio director was thinking with the first take?!) and I mean, who wouldn't after Gloucester in Unicorn Overlord. And I feel her character is close to being really cool, but ultimately wasted by wanting her to be Trahearne fighting Zhaitan. For no reason!

[Clerith]

I also think it was a mistake to even focus on an "evil dude". A friendly competition with a positive outcome would have worked far better as a holiday story

A friendly competition with no villainous antagonist - plus a friendly duel against Koana, Tancred, and Urianger - is something I can not only get behind but also had in my cards.
And it could have worked, if the two storylines were kept separate and given more time.
I also wanted to go on an adventure with Estinien and have Krile train us as Pictomancer.
Like I said - a lot of wasted potential.

As for Wuk... I played the game in German, and her voice actress did a good job.
The criticism (aside from the character development) comes mostly from the English-speaking community.
Since English isn't my native language, I'll leave it to others to judge that aspect.