I understand your plight. I left this game when they started scaling end-game content to be easier with new patches. That, along with real life circumstances, just really killed my drive to play. I played a lot of games since and ultimately landed up coming back to FFXIV.

What it came down to is deciding that I really loved this game and wanted to stick with it through the good and bad. I, personally, have never seen a developer that is so responsive to their community and works to compromise with the players to make the QoL more ideal. I feel like this game is going to be around for a long time and I want to be a part of it. I think SE still has a little learning to do. Expectations have changed a lot over the years and I feel like they're still adjusting.

That being said, there are a lot of jerks out there. It comes with any online community. Just find a good FC/LS that's willing to support you and ignore the jerks. Let them have their own community. I'll be over here with all the nice people willing to help one another.