I'll echo the sentiment someone mentioned earlier about XIV having the worst stat itemisation in any MMO I've played. They were aiming for simplicity but just made it far too basic, to the point where your rotation/gameplay at i170 is the same at i210. Because all pieces of gear are just stat sticks. There are no added procs on gear. There are no unique skill/spell modifiers which make X preferable to Y under condition Z. There are no situational pieces to switch up in order to adapt to boss mechanics in a specific raid. Healer BiS is all the same whether you need heavy AoE healing, single target healing, HoTs, shields, dps, survivability, mass status removal - you wear the same stuff.

It's for this reason alone that horizontal progression will not work well in this game, and why vertical progression is somewhat underwhelming.