Stop Raising Item Level and build foundation with Horizontal Progression first

[AzakaTonnerre]

Gear needed for Ilvl requirements is accesible by everyone. Which is one reason it's more succesful than FFXI.

Having 2 million players for 9 months (FXIV) versus having 500,000+ players for 10 years (FXI).

Not too sure which one you would call more successful than the other, so you might want to tap the breaks a little bit with that assessment.