One of the great things about FFXI was that you could work towards something for a year, get it, and use it for like 3 to 4 years without it becoming obsolete.
You felt like you accomplished something, and it was often something fairly unique.

For the most hardcore players, there were super-rare items that only a few people were able to acquire per server (until just before xiv 1.0).

In 1.0, relic weapons were a serious grind. Yet with the release of 2.0 they became a joke to get, and quickly become obsolete. The set of following quests were once again a ridiculous grind. And once again, they have become obsolete with the release of 3.0.

While I understand the point of making things obsolete is to keep people playing, I really wish there were 1 or 2 things that I could work toward in the long-run (like a legendary weapon that remains legendary)

I don't count housing as on many servers (including mine) there are no longer any available. And I don't count gold saucer, as the large rewards are either meaningless (e.g. cloud card), or not 3.0 compatible (Fenrir and Adamantoise unable to fly).

While things like tetra master and chocobo racing exist, they don't seem to have any actual rewards. Best you get from choco racing is a helmet for glamour (which looks the same as one I have from 1.0). And there are no real benefits to tetra master, other than getting MGP.

What I'm missing is a "super" item I can spend 2 to 3 years working towards, as opposed to a "new" item I can spend a week working towards every new major patch.