This may have been mentioned, I'm not sure as I haven't read through the whole post, but missing a weekly cap means that you are forever behind. Due to the community being the way it is, you are left out of content if you fall behind. This behaviour is actually promoted by the game style and way they judge difficulty. This game is very unforgiving in ways that it shouldn't be, all to be "competitive" with games that are all exactly the same.

XI broke the mould by being different, and no it wasn't as popular as WoW, but the players were loyal. SE have sold a lot of that for money, which is understandable as they are a business out to make money at the end of the day. It is sad to see a franchise like Final Fantasy being a victim of this system though.

Horizontal progression will be different, it will add various new challenges, but it's not as safe as copying the template from other games, so most likely will not be implemented. Also they can't use the same technique time after time like they can with vertical progression. They have to be even more creative, which uses more money and resources. I wish it would happen but I doubt it will.