Probably the closest equivalent to hunts in FFXI were the HNMs. It was not long after they added the HNMs to the game that people had worked out nigh-foolproof strategies for killing them. Thus, the only "skill" involved in hunting these mobs was who was able to mash Provoke (or Steal or whatever fast job ability) to claim the monster first. Due to the no-sharing claim system in FFXI, that meant that only one group would get any sort of reward. Due to the fact that these monsters spawned only once per day with a three-hour spawning window, this meant that the other groups who walked away empty handed had been standing around for as many as three hours, finger poised over the provoke button, barely even daring to breathe for fear that they might miss that split second opening. (Even worse, generally players ACTUALLY wanted to claim the HQ version of that HNM, which would randomly spawn in place of the HNM every three days or so.)

Since remaining tense for hours at a time is stressful, and doing so only to fail to actually succeed in claiming the mob is a real downer, it's only natural that folks started turning to bots to do the claiming for them. Not only are they likely to beat the reaction time of humans, but they allow you to relax while you wait; read a book, watch TV, even sleep if the bot includes a sufficently noisy alarm.

Claiming a monster is LUCK not SKILL. That's not really what I call a "competition". Actually killing a monster is where the skill should be involved - and Hunt mobs don't take a lot of skill to kill. And, to be frankly honest, even if SE DID add claimable overworld mobs to the game that required skill to kill, it wouldn't be long before gear progression outpaced the need for skill, given the crazy fast pace with which gear becomes obsolete in this game.

So, yeah, if competitive PvE is going to be added to this game, Hunts are not well-designed for it, and never have been. Hunts are a grind, and that's about it.