Simplicity over complexity, time to change.

[Dannythm]

I care, because it is the only really objective measurement whether game good or bad. EQ was good, FF11 was good, WoW was good because they had (for their respective times) large and stable population base. And something like AoC where population just falls off the cliff - was not good.
And besides - the more successful game in terms of people, the more money it gets. This means more content of higher quality.

I redirect to you again to Argumentum ad populum, something popular doesn't mean something good (and most usually it's right the opposite), also, it doesn't mean that something not popular must be good, so it's always fallacious in both directions to argue the quality of something based on it's popularity.

FF14 needed a completely redo to make it "accessible". We were in WoW era when 1.0 came out and it was total mess not in regards of copypaste and lack of content, but overall mechanics was just straight from 90s.

What part of "the game wasn't finished when it released" you didn't get? Yoshida decided to redo the game from scratch, we don't know if that was really needed, or just a change of engine and refinement of the original mechanics and completion of Tanaka's vision with the MMO suitable engine would have sufficed.

You want a world how you like it. It's understandable. But from core design perspective making some area a difficult and dangerous is a bad choice. You are locking some of the crowd out of content, and it is bad as it creates "elitism" for some and frustration for some others.
I still hate all those "sky"/"sea" locked out zones concept, because if you are casual - you don't have a chance to look at them. And those "die 20 times to explore" zone are as bad, because when i play casually - I still want to see everything at some point of time.

Any human activity can lead to elitism, I don't see how you intend to have a point there.

And on the design perspective, dangerous don't mean inaccessible, just not a walk in the park like it is now, even if areas pose a challenge, everyone, including casuals, could access eventually to all content.

I get the impression that you are making your argument in your head, because I've never said that ARR should be exactly like 1.0 or XI were, jsut that it could take ideas and concepts from them and include them in the game to add depth to it, not make it harder or more difficult.

SE is a commercial company, so it wants return on investment.

And they would've got it, I don't see your point.

Maybe you should not interpret others words how you like and just get them as is? Simple doesn't mean bad, it's a common sense that you should not overcomplicate things when it's not necessary.

The game should not be oversimplified either.