Why can't Dungeons be longer/harder, but more... piecework?

[Lastelli]

But they are giving more to hardcores that they do to casuals.
Casuals only have now 1 dung per patch and 1 alliance raid per patch which allows them to get some significant rewards.

The only piece of hardcore content is ultimate raids, and we get 2 every 2 years.
Savage content isn't really challenging enough to be considered "hc content", not when the last several tiers were cleared in 1-2 days. Devs want many players to do savage content, including casual players, that's why they made it easier and introduced the ultimate difficulty to give something to those players that want a real challenge. People being too scared or too lazy to try it doesn't really make it hardcore content.
Also, I believe crafting, gathering, housing, pvp (excluding ranked feast I suppose), msq, sub quests, beast tribes, eureka, gold saucer, blu mage and so on can be considered very casual friendly (in addition to dungeons and 24 man raids).
If anything, this game is very casual oriented. Not saying it's necesserily a bad thing, but reading that devs are giving more to hc players is frankly quite hilarious.

[linay]

People being too scared or too lazy to try it doesn't really make it hardcore content.

Arguably, it is, because that's one meaningful distinction you can make.

Regardless, any content you have to use the party finder (at least, for NA, maybe EU as well) due to difficulty is definitely not casual content. So if you want to argue that current Savage raid is not hardcore content, you can sort that out with the people who say there is no midcore content, because neither Savage raid nor (arguably) Extreme trial is casual content.

[Lastelli]

Arguably, it is, because that's one meaningful distinction you can make.

Regardless, any content you have to use the party finder (at least, for NA, maybe EU as well) due to difficulty is definitely not casual content. So if you want to argue that current Savage raid is not hardcore content, you can sort that out with the people who say there is no midcore content, because neither Savage raid nor (arguably) Extreme trial is casual content.

I'd argue that the way many people think about casual content is wrong. It really looks like "casual content" is self-completing content to you guys. Content you can join and clear without knowing a thing about the game or your job and without being accountable for you actions since you can just be carried by the rest of the party/alliance. That's the case for dungeons and most of the 24 man raids.

I'd say casual content is content that can be cleared reasonably fast with some practice by a group of coordinated people without serious physical or mental disabilities.

Now, clearly difficulty is subjective. Some people don't understand crafting rotations and find them difficult, but I think no one in their right mind would then proceed to define crafting as "hardcore content". But at the very least, extreme trials and the first 2-3 turns of savage can hardly be defined hardcore content. They just require you to...play and think, I guess? But I do realized that when the rest of the game can be completed with zero effort, even that may look like an ordeal.

Personally, I would define ex trials and the first turn of a savage tier as very casual friendly.

[linay]

I'd argue that the way many people think about casual content is wrong. It really looks like "casual content" is self-completing content to you guys. Content you can join and clear without knowing a thing about the game or your job and without being accountable for you actions since you can just be carried by the rest of the party/alliance. That's the case for dungeons and most of the 24 man raids.

I'd say casual content is content that can be cleared reasonably fast with some practice by a group of coordinated people without serious physical or mental disabilities.

Now, clearly difficulty is subjective. Some people don't understand crafting rotations and find them difficult, but I think no one in their right mind would then proceed to define crafting as "hardcore content". But at the very least, extreme trials and the first 2-3 turns of savage can hardly be defined hardcore content. They just require you to...play and think, I guess? But I do realized that when the rest of the game can be completed with zero effort, even that may look like an ordeal.

Personally, I would define ex trials and the first turn of a savage tier as very casual friendly.

Casual content is something you can do casually. There are two applicable meanings: either content that you can do in a relaxed/unconcerned manner and/or content that you can do in a noncommittal/impermanent/irregular manner.

When the NA community decides it has to use the party finder to clear Extreme trials and Savage raids (including the first turn of each tier), it has branded those contents as non-casual.

Again, if you have a problem with the label of hardcore, you can take it up with the people who might not agree that they are midcore contents, because those are the only two valid options as far as the NA community is concerned.

P.S. On the matter of being carried, that's just the nature of group content, but enough people still have to know what they're doing to get a clear. Even solo instanced duty can be failed, so you do have to know something about the game and you are accountable for your action for all contents. The difference between each content is just the degree to which the party can accommodate your weaknesses.