It's pretty simple why people still play. It's free, they are making changes and naturally you will not see the more drastic ones till later since more work is involved in developing them. People are looking forward to this change.

However, the most simple reason of them all is, we want to make this game better by being active and contributing our opinions on how to best shape things. That, on top of being a fan to the Final Fantasy series, keeps people around. It's really that simple.