Why does this patch feel rushed like when the game was released?

[Jennestia]

6 months to build new gear?! Seriously? How do they manage to put more gear in XI with all the new content with a whole lot more of variables to work with?

When you make a comparison like this you can't ignore the obvious - A lot of XI's new gear are modified versions of older gear. For example, the Nebula gear set is the same model as the Errant gear set; The Alcide's Harness is the same as the THF Job Specific Armor, Dragon Harness, the Brand New gear set from Voidwatchers are modified versions of the Assault Breastplate (been around since 2004), the Iggira BLM JSE gear (been around since 2004) and a modified Denali armor set, which been around since 2006.

Basically they take old models and reformat them into something new, which is what most MMORPG developer does including Blizzard -- They don't build from scratch most of the time. Also remember that XIV's armor sets are varied based on materials used, which means created multiple copies of the same armor to have a different look or texture, which you normally can call easily without making a new model, but XIV's armor are just more than a head, body, hands legs and feet piece, they're multiple pieces thereof.

Don't give me that HD graphics excuse I've seen entire character models built within a week

Prove it. Show us said Character models, with full animations implemented, to the highest graphical standard PC allows that was created in a simple week along with their documentation proving that was started on Monday, and completed on friday, because I've seen them take months to years and I actually work in this industry.

There's a reason the player model is the most detailed and NPCs tend to be less detailed you know, and it's not laziness I can assure you.