Did Squenix get too ambitious, or why FF14 came out so poorly

[Leeloo]

Ambitious as in having way too much on their plate and not giving titles the tlc they deserve and used to get? The kind of quality that made their old games so popular. Yea I can see that.

Also perhaps too ambitious regarding their target audience. Seems like they wanted a bigger piece of the pie than they got with XI, but in the process of trying to draw in a larger variety of players they turned most of 'em off in one way or another. Too casual in some places for the hardcores and not casual enough in others. Too much easy-mode in the wrong areas. Not enough FF for their FF fans.

Just a lot of awkward decisions all around. That gets me wondering where the line is between "this is the result of rushed mediocre work" and "they were just way off on what they thought the players would want". Hard to tell which is which sometimes.