Many XIV players themselves have had criticisms of the game over the years. The devs either agree and fix the problems (look at machinist!) or disagree and try other things that we will continue to disagree with (let's add female Viera but also male Hrothgar to balance it - oops now everyone is twice as mad.)

It comes to whether it's a criticism of the game as a stand alone entity, vs a comparison to how other games do things and why it should be done like that. "Endgame" content always feels a little empty at the launch of an expansion, because SE wants to give everyone time to enjoy the story without feeling the need to rush, and to allow the support groups for the world first racers time to actually make the top end gear that they'll need. (There was an Aetherflow Media article for how the crafting teams that support world first raid groups work just as hard as the raiders in the lead up, farming up the gear and overmelding it and prepare food and consumables and stuff. It's crafting in Savage mode: https://www.aetherflowmedia.com/pit-...one-month-out/ )

To someone solely focused on the battle portion of endgame, the crafting pit crew can seem like so much background noise. I have no idea if any other game puts that much pressure on the support FCs for raiders. But it's an essential component to XIV's savage raid teams, and cannot be ignored.