Between duty finders and cross world, FFXIV is not really an mmo, its more like a fancy co-op game with some minor mmo elements.

There is no long term anything because people do not have a long enough attention span and they needed to make as much money in as little time possible after the relaunch, otherwise SE would have gone out of business. So they catered to the masses, the easiest to get masses, the super casual players. It was a good strategy to get the most money in the least amount of time back then, but they got stuck in a rut and its frankly too late to change. I would like to see them shake things up a bit, but its just not going to happen. I had hopes they would have more of an mmo feel than a co-op in the next online FF game, but Yoshida stated that was not even up for consideration at this point, XIV is simply making too much money.

If you are looking for anything like you say, its simply not here, its not that kind of game anymore, it was in v1, but it hasn't been since relaunch. On the bright side, there are many many good games out there right now and many more about to release. I find myself playing less and less and for the first time since ARR I haven't bothered to level more classes after the msq and I haven't even been capping tomes, I just don't have it in me anymore. Been here since the beginning, but its just not worth hoping and praying they will throw us a bone anymore. I will basically play thru the story and thats about it. Doubt I will even get the next expac unless they do something monumental, which again at this point is a pipe dream.

This game has gotten stale, but for the uber casuals and the new comers its great.