Development of Crystal Tools was inevitable, it was designed ground up to support SE's development of multiple titles so you can't really blame them for investing so much time and money into it.

As for what we see in FFXIV, it's really not that impressive in terms of content. Repeat enemies, environments and textures aren't impressive in variety. They look absolutely stunning, but I can't imagine enough resources were invested in visuals that tipped the game out of balance. I think they screwed things up in design altogether with certain features and ideas in order to be different.

That coupled with the fact that the game was released prematurely created the mess that was XIV at launch.

You guys should check out the development story behind Tomb Raider: Angel of darkness. Kind of interesting and in its own way a similar story where SE pushed this product out in the interest of early profit and disruption before it was ready for the consumer.