When I first started I was told that I needed to always have cutting edge gear or I would get kicked from dungeons. This was advice, and I adhered to it, coming from FFXI's minmaxathon, which I took to be MMORPG-norm. When I met people in FFXIV who were taking it easy on gearing, and getting by just fine, I started to soften up. I'd been in the process of softening up about gearing and minmaxing for a few years, as I'd played FFXI since 2003.
When I started I expected that everyone was trying to be like me, gearing to the best they could, and always putting their best foot forward. It seemed to be true. WHMs loved to Holy spam, SCHs like to brag about DPS for the whole dungeon while Eos heals. Everyone seemed to work torwards going to Binding Coil. There were shout groups for PUG raiding. It felt familiar.
I never had a problem with PUGs, but in the earlier years, I was much more prone to call someone out, and to make a fuss about poor performance. In recent times I generally don't bat an eye and start to think up excuses as to why they might not be performing. I generally default to either, "They used a jump pot/leveled via Fates, so they aren't as experienced as their gear/level indicates." or "They are drunk." Both are common.
I've always loved fast dungeon runs. I always strive for them, as it shows complete understanding of your job/skills, as well as full effort, if you're clearing a dungeon in roughly 15 minutes. I remember my goals for expert dungeons being to do a dungeon in 11 minutes, and I have before, with friends. It was Sohr Khai.
I've become disenchanted with raiding in the game over the years. Don't get me wrong. I love the more complex fights, but PUGing has been getting worse and worse for PFing, and since I stepped out of my statics, returning to raiding almost seems like a non-option. It's funny, I don't really miss it that much. It doesn't seem important at all. In earlier years I was jonesing to keep up with my friends who were in other groups, as it always seemed like we were all silently competing to be first group to beat a tier or make it farther in the tier than others. But the more brutal fights in raiding took their toll on me pretty early with A3S. It's why I refuse to do Ultimate. My group took 5.5 months to beat A3s, and by the time we beat it, on myself and the SMN were original members of the static from the day we started prog... I don't view high effort, low reward scenarios as a pleasurable experience, even if you get gloating rights and trophies.
Nowadays I view myself as able to do any role, any job, to a high level of play. When I first started I was scared to heal. Nowadays I can say I've healed entire Savage tiers, but I would rather tank or DPS. I still lean heavily towards Melee + Tank, my first jobs were DRG/WAR.
I guess I'm a lot more patient for the playerbase on the casual side, and a lot less patient with the raiding side. Quite the shift for me.