I'm not surprised really: for one thing this means less expenses to run the servers and considering a lot of EU, NA and JP servers are pretty much barren (Glad I chose Balmung I guess, thanks .Hack for your guidance), I wouldn't be surprised if this happens here someday. Unless SB ramps the numbers back where ARR was (Aren't we at like 500k and less, basically half from what we had during ARR?), this might be an inevitable change.

I mean unlike "The Worst MMORPG of all time" (because saying its name is as bad as commiting a crime. Apparently) which can allow itself to run many servers at once because of its "millions" of players (I don't know how many, but it's high enough that merges aren't happening), FFXIV can't afford such a thing since that it has MUCH less, to the point where people can't even find enough players to play within their own servers. Heck even if I'm in Balmung I still can't find the stuff I want in PF either, and it's a populated one!

Either way, I am looking forward for the CR PF because I want to complete the trials before expansion hits and since it is nearly impossible for me right now, I'm putting all my hopes into the new feature.

....but I have a feeling it will disappoint in some ways....