With you 100%
I hate how everything worthwhile gets instanced. What's the point in a gigantic, beautiful world if there's no character benefit to exploring it? I thought they took a very small step in the right direction with Shposhae, having those unique plundered items in an open world space like that. I went there and I enjoyed collecting them. It's one of the only times I've done anything fun in open world FFXIV. When I was done using them for my low level jobs, I was glad to be able to sell them and get a small cash windfall.

More NMs, events and chests with worthwhile and unique loot, all the way. Items that have their own niche and will always be worth getting, like Astral Rings in XI, for example. And not everything has to be Ex, sometimes it's fun to get a paycheck item!