I apologize that I haven't read the whole thread, but my thoughts are thus:

The current open world is too easy. There's just no denying that.

However, I don't want the new areas to be so dangerous that my chocobo and I aren't capable of getting to required quest locations by ourselves. I do however want it to be dangerous enough that if I accidentally pull two mobs instead of one I will probably die. So all I'm saying here is no *required* open world content should force you to be in a party to complete it.

I also think that there should be some optional quests in the open world that do require working together with a party. But these need to be things that are worth requiring a party, like rare treasure maps, high level FATEs (that possibly drop tomes), beast tribe strongholds (that don't require you to enter then for daily beast tribe quests). I hope you get what I mean. Areas that you are never required to go to for story but offer worth while bonuses.