Contrary to your corporate checklist comment, I think what sets this game apart is how brimming with love it feels. It's a labor of love with incredible attention to detail in its lore, artwork, sound design, everything. If the main complaint is stale content design, they are certainly trying to change it up. Deep dungeon is a new content type which will be ongoing through patches, and exploratory missions are going to receive a major reworking after an initial misstep and those will come back for another try later this year.

Also coming is major new GC content (form and level up a platoon of NPC allies). Big additions to the game since its launch are too numerous to go into, but recent examples are seasonal ranked pvp (Feast) and treasure dungeons (Aquapolis). I'm clearly an apologist and huge fan, but what other games out there are doing a better job than XIV with patch content pipeline? If this game is truly restricted by budget and understaffing then the team's efforts are even more remarkable, because I think they are the best in the industry.