WoW is bleeding players because it got too stupid and used mobile monetization and grind to extract from the playerbase. If the WoW players want to stick around and play FFXIV, it's going to be because they either like the fights or they like the story. We were doing just fine before the WoW players came along, and we'll continue to do so after this surge is over. Additionally, things like the WoW token and other idiotic ideas from WoW that lobotomize the game should STAY IN WOW.

And to be brutally honest, you should be thanking your lucky stars SE isn't charging you 500M gil per zone to unlock flying and only asking you to run around the map a bit and do a couple of quests for most zones. If you can't be bothered to do that, then you can walk.