The nostalgia is strong in this thread.

Customization and all of its possibilities looks cool on paper, but it was terrible in execution. The system wasn't simply "dumbed down" as it was suggested, it was reworked into something actually reliable. Maybe it changed direction, but this new direction went somewhere rather than being all over the place.

Customization in games with any seriously demanding content is often times a myth. What usually happens is somebody figures out the "best" kind of customization and everyone has to conform to that (remember how every tank was expected to wear STR gear?). FFXIV 2.0's approach is to give definite tools in your hands and a challenge in front of you, and call it lazy or dumbed down or whatever you will, but this is more fun than anything you could ever do in 1.0.

Is it too much to ask everyone to consider the matter objectively and not judge based on the embellished idea they have in their memory?