I love the people who expected FFXIV to go from gear progression MMO to Action RPG or something.

Seriously, what do you want? You want something "different"... and you cite examples of Sky, Sea, etc... which was just "more of the same" in FFXI as well with a different skin. If you want to get that reductio ad absurdum, then pretty much every aspect of the MMO genre is nothing more than the same thing with a different skin. Every Action RPG is the same game with a different skin. Every FPS is the same game with a different skin.