BA shows that we fail as a Community (big time)

[Tyrn]

I think they were? The 2.16 patch notes say that the fights "can now be challenged via the Duty Finder" (emphasis mine), which makes me think as much, but I didn't start playing until last year, so I can't confirm it personally. As for the Yojimbo trial, I'm really not certain; I'd assume that they'd make it available through the Hildibrand quests because nothing else would make sense, and maybe they just walked back on their previous position or something (wouldn't be the first time...).

It has been years but if my memory hasn't degraded completely you had to make your own group of 8 people then the entire group had go to Eastern Thanalan / CCH then a person doing the quest or someone who had done it already had to get leader and click on a instance bubble next to Halatali / the chimera cave in CCH like you do for instanced MSQ/job quest battles and then you'd get sent into the instanced boss arenas just like you do with the DF now. All the 2.16 change did was let you queue for it with randoms instead of forming your own group and getting everyone together in the zone (kinda like premade potd/hoh) before entering the instanced fight.