I believe what helps make the zones of FFXI and FFXIV initially impressive is that the developers don't directly tell you what is special about them. Just being in a zone (like Ru'Aun Gardens, for instance) can have an effect on a player due to the time it takes to get there and the story missions you have to complete to even be able to enter. It builds up the regions in the players' minds and can only be cheapened if they turn it into a game.

The dev teams for both games would do best to continue to stay out of making genuine player curiosity and interest something that can be numerated with achievements.