I never post on this forum but this caught my attention as I felt like this during Heavensward before I took a moderate break.

First of all, the formula of XIV is focused on casual play, sure there are a lot of things to do but they're put in a way that you don't need insane amounts of time and grind for it, like in other MMOs, as of this, the content is spread out and not very deep in any way, for example, while WoW has a lot of raid bosses, XIV only has 4 every 6 or so months.

Depending on you, it can be good or bad. Personally, for me it’s perfect, having a 10 hour job 5 days a week, I can play for 3 hours, raid, do some experts and hang around with my FC and still have relevant gear, hell, I’m the only person in my FC with 20 online members at night with a 4S clear.

Now back on your topic, you say the content is quickly “spent” and the rewards are not enough. Basically, you want to feel “special” for the amount of effort and time you put into this… and this is not going to happen because of the casual focus this game has, and probably that’s what also makes people like this game, not everything fits everyone.

Your approach to the game is to have rewards but you forget the most important thing in a video game… FUN. Why would I play The Witcher 3 for 60 hours if after that I’m just going to uninstall it and move on to the next game? What am I going to get for investing so much in that game besides a 100% save file and a bunch of medals in my steam profile? Do I get some tangible rewards? Probably not and depending how you see it, it can be an actual waste of time. BUT what is worth is the experience, the adventure, having to play and “live” the story, the characters, enjoying the world, the visuals, the combat, everything about it is to have FUN in the end.

So, this takes us to XIV, one of the reasons I play this MMO is for the fights, every fight feels good, has impact, the mechanics, visuals, music, everything about it is fun, and I don’t mind going back and doing Titan Extreme after 3 years just because it’s FUN. Loot is something you gain ingame for your effort and to help you with more fights. I mean, I got the Genji wep after my third 4S clear and it was like, “nice, I can focus on other classes”, but I already proved myself I could clear 4S with pugs and my skill is decent enough, so it’s a personal reward there, more than anything.

Even Yoshida stated long ago that they don’t want players to feel forced to play this game, you can resub every patch, play for that month and leave until the next one. If you want to feel rewarded there are options, like showing up your character with a full 340 set with genji wep, on a Alte Roite mount and whatever other shit you earn, and when Ultimate Coil is released go to Limsa and show your shining weapon showing that you are the elite.
If all of that isn’t your cup of tea, then this game overall isn’t, go play WoW or Black Desert and grind for hours until you one shot people then.

In short, the overall objective of this game, and basically any other VIDEO GAME is to have FUN.