As someone who played BFA and had an epiphany that the game direction was soulless, pure grind based, and community the most toxic in the MMO genre, I think I can live with the design differences between FFXIV and WoW. I understand these are things you value, and I’m sorry the current design doesn’t meet those expectations, but when you look at ESO, where quest content is all voiced, the amount of content from patch to patch is much lower compared to FFXIV. The empty zone design, I can see it, but design needs to factor in performance, so as someone who isn’t versed in that, I’m not sure what the fix it. Great wood is a beautiful zone, same without Il Mheg, but Khoulosia is definitely a bit lacking.

TL;DR WoW is not the standard for MMO design anymore, unfortunately.