I agree with the OP. FFXIV has some amazing world building, story, and aesthetics that I don't want to sell short, but I feel the gameplay side of things is weak and has grown stagnant.

The formula of dungeons, trials, and raids has worn thin. As well designed as they are, they all follow the same template. Every dungeon is a hallway with three bosses in mostly circle arenas (sometimes a rectangle for fun). Those bosses have cool mechanics and the hallways are in beautiful settings, but its still the same concept over and over. The same is true of trials and raids. Even the rewards are dished out in a predictable formula. I'm willing to bet the next trial we get will have a set of weapons themed after the boss.

The Aquapolis was the stand out piece of content this patch for me. It might be simple, but it is a totally new template for battle content and that alone makes it so much more fun than Hullbreaker HM. We desperately need new kinds of battle content. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that The Palace of the Dead is the next big step. I would be thrilled if a patch included no new dungeons or trials or raids if instead it had a series of all new types of battle content.

The stats in FFXIV are too rudimentary to support an MMORPG. Without more interesting gear characteristics (stats, attached abilities, traits, etc), there is no reason outside of glamour to be excited about getting new gear. Its gotten to the point where I don't even look at what stats my gear has, just the ilvl. A sword with 200 STR is no more interesting than a sword with 195 STR. If I get an upgrade, I usually glamour over it and continue my day as if nothing happened. This is not rewarding enough for an MMORPG. This overly simple stat design has two major drawbacks.
  • It makes combat boring, because we have absolutely no way to change it outside of what job we're playing and since combat is a huge part of FFXIV, this reduces the desire to play most of FFXIV.
  • Gear is the main reward for doing most content. Since the gear has boring stats, this also limits desire to play most of FFXIV because the rewards are lackluster. If the latest dungeon offered gear that had some kind of bonus for your job like a shield that included "Shield Bash is now a small AoE" or a chest piece that had a trait "Wildfire now also includes a small percentage of your party's damage". Wouldn't you be genuinely excited to find that armor? Pumped to try it out in combat? Motivated to get back in that dungeon and see what else is there? That's what getting new gear is supposed to be like.

I really feel these two changes would revitalize FFXIV and really make it without rival in the MMORPG market.