Square Enix has given up on real gameplay

[Nuru]

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.

You can never relate any MMORPG and even dare try to compare it to a single player game. First of all, most of your MMORPG experience is directly with it's community. A single player game is just all about gameplay and that's it. MMORPGs can be about gameplay too, and we all know that is what FFXIV lacks. However, that isn't to say that they aren't changing this game as we speak, because they are, and we just have to be patient. How the game will be like, nobody knows right now, but valid opinions, criticism, or suggestions never hurt.

You can't actually say that SE has really given up on anything, they might as well give up on the entire game if they have given up on gameplay. Right now they are fixing the core problems which reside in the UI, Combat, and Armory systems. In order to add more gameplay features they must perfect the core mechanics. So hold your chocobos and stop assuming things.