FFXIV is reliable and consistent

[Bourne_Endeavor]

If someone has the time and energy to play, they should be able to play without being gated at 450 tomes/week, or 1 item per week in raids, weekly crafting turn in caps, etc.
They shouldnt be restricted because someone ELSE doesnt necessarily have a similar amount of time to play.

They do this out of necessity. Remove these restrictions and players will have full i390 within a week. Some will have i400. At which point, what purpose does normal mode, crafted, Primals and the 24 serve? All that gear is rendered 100% DoA since you can simply spam dungeons or Eureka and buy better gear.

As for the topic in question. I feel FFXIV has already stagnated to an extent. While I can appreciate some predictability, I shouldn't be able to predict an entire expansion's worth of content with 90% reliability. Stormblood is literally Heavensward with a red coat of paint. If Shadowbringers simply dips its brush into the purple can, it'll have an uphill battle keeping me engaged. Granted, I wouldn't mind the repetition so much if I had stuff to do. In many ways, Stormblood has boiled down to either raid, do Eureka or play a different game after a month or so. At least this is a common criticism I see—one I cannot fault people for. It didn't help content was spread out far too thin. Look at 4.3. There was nothing to do outside Namazu, Tsukiyomi and Ridorona once you finished the story... for six weeks. Unless, of course, you jumped into Ultimate.