Square Enix has given up on real gameplay

[Physic]

You can sit there and have your character powerleveled to almost 50.

You can press one button 1000's of times to level your craft to 50.

Has SE given up?

Think of a single-player RPG whose combat and leveling experience was so enjoyable, you actually craved more! Think of how satisfying it was to gain a level and have access to more powerful abilities, spells, equipment. Think of what drove you to attain more for your character.

This type of experience is completely lacking in FFXIV and instead of fixing it with superior gameplay, SE has simply thrown in the towel. They've decided to simply make leveling a stupid easy no thought required process which is only a means to an end. In doing so they have sucked the life out of the RPG experience, which is to grow your character and gain satisfaction from doing so - to take your character on a journey.

There are no journeys in FFXIV, only destinations.

for crafting its because, apparently not enough people wanted a more complex crafting mini game, they just wanted to get through it to make items. Since the alpha phase crafting has gotten less and less interactive.

as far as the powerleveling, thats not really a gameplay issue. In fact id say with multi monster fights, and the skill systems, the battle is actually pretty entertaining, and in many situations very challenging. Powerlevel is an example of people going outside the challenge and gameplay that is set up.

As far as the single player rpg idea. You are thinking your idea is the norm. Some people play rpgs and forge ahead in battle, completing content when it is most difficult and challenging, and some people level up until they can murder all opponents with insane ease. This is just the difference in how different people want to play a game. Because this is an online game, you get a clash of these idealogies, and strangely each side wants to force everyone else to play their way. There are journeys, you choose how you want to get there.