Can someone from devopment explain why Eureka was delayed for so long?

[Vidu]

What you said last line sure thing, but we also talk about the stuff that's happening in the game too. We laugh when someone keeps getting aggro and dies, we love it when we get cool items we been grinding for etc. Do I have fun with strangers? Sure thing, in fact I added 4 of them into my discord server last night because they happened to enjoy playing with me too. People don't wanna grind but same time they don't wanna clear content that actually gives them higher ilvl, why? Effort, paying attention to the screen, actually playing? You can never satisfy MMO players in many ways. It's either too much grind or absoluttely nothing to do after the grind fest been happening too fast. You can tell me what you find fun and be realistic about it, asuming you would want some of it to happen in the game? And I've done it many times with strangers and still find it fun. It's grindy`Sure, but I also played plenty of games both online and offline to grind to get myself things i want. Maybe it's the fact I've done it so many times before or simply because I'm not spoiled enough to get things handed at me for no reason? You tell me.

Since you're implying that my complains are based on wanting things handed to me, let me make one thing clear: I absolutly do not mind a grind. I have finished 3 ARR and HW relics - all from scratch, all when they were current content. I farmed for all ponies, all birds and while I'm having pretty bad luck when it comes to those stupid dogs, I am continuing my mission there. (I guess my brain wanted to protect me from thise, so I forgot to mention it: I got BOTH freaking Yokai-mounts! You know, the terrible, terrible FATE-grind things. And I dont even like the look of them! My PvP-level was at 50 when PvP was rather dead content and queuetimes over an hour normal...) I have basically every job at 70 (except for monk... and leftovers for dragoon and ast). My little casual-semi-static is progressing at Savage atm.
Actually, the first game I've ever played - Pokemon Red - I grinded the hell out of that. The first Final Fantasy game I touched was 10 - and my last savegame there has about 300 hours, most of them spend with grinding for exp and money to grind for more exp. My other major hobby besides videogames is cross stitching - I can easly pour 80+ hours into just one project.
Please understand that I do not expect things being handed to me.

I do, however, expect to be entertained by a videogame - a fight like Shinryu EX for example does that for me because its actually keeping me engaged, makes me pay attention and react to things happening. I find that content both enjoyable with my friends aswell as with (skilled) strangers.

Now, Eureka on the other hand: The core-element of the fight in there is utterly boring to me, because, lets face it: the combat system of FFXIV isnt that fun to begin with. You hit your rota and be done with it. The mechanics of a fight like Shinryu and dealing with them are what makes the content engaging and fun (at least to me - sorry, pressing 1-2-3 and then 4-5-6 and then back to 1-2-3 and maybe 7, 8, 9 in between is not fun).
Eureka basically has non of those. NM might have some mechanics to them, but you need to keep in mind that you're gonna spend most of your time there not fighting NM but the normal mobs with a cone-AoE at best.
I had fun doing exploring bits and the quests for Krile - at least the ones I got to do so far because I realised: In order to play enjoyable content, I need to put in hours of boring, dull grind. I dont need to put in effort to get item-rewards, I need to put in effort to get fun-content-rewards. And thats wrong, sorry.
I understand that the social aspect of the game is a major fun - makes sense with an MMO after all. And I also understand that specially FFXI-nostalgia-people might wanted something like this back - except they forgot that chatting was possible with FFXI-combat, but not with what we've got here.
But content still needs to be fun or enjoyable without that social aspect - it can be more fun with people around, for sure. It most certainly always will be!
But it has to work as game, by itself, before that.

If "please, give me something fun to do in Eureka because beating up the same monster over and over again isnt" equals "you just want stuff handed to you!" I dont know what to tell you.
Give me fun content.
Or at least give me some variety.
Give me a choice and more than one way to achieve my goal.

For Eureka for example:
Give me daily explore missions to find certain spots. Give me a hint that if I kill one particular mob, I can get extra loot. Let me find or stumble over treasure chests or maybe a logbook, explaining something about Eureka. Give me a labyrinth with puzzles to solve. Make me pull a certain mob to a certain spot and kill it there, to open a secret door.
Just... let me do something beside chain-pulling-braindead-grind. The content makes me want to watch a movie because by itself its just so, so boring - but at the same time it just requires enough attention that I cant even do that. Eureka doesnt make me pay attention to the screen because there is something fun and engaging happen but because I might pull another mob by accident. I want to look at the screen and pay attention to it! But the game needs to give me something actually worth looking at and paying attention to, if you understand what I mean?

I do not mind a grind in general - absolutly not.
I do however mind a boring grind - more so one for, at this point, outdated rewards. Granted, the carrot might be worth it to you and I hope the enjoyment you get out of it, is enough for you.
I told you what I would find fun now and I'd say I've been pretty realistic about it - because: basically thats more than just zerging down monster over and over again.

I dont want to have to rely on people - wether its strangers or friends - to distract me from how boring the core-aspect of Eureka is.