Openly admitting to ignoring the players

[Shin96]

The likely scenario right now is simply that they abandoned those principles because they became inconvenient, now that XIV is doing very well and doesn't have to desperately win people's trust back like it was the case in 2.0

I think what's even more likely than that is their corporate overlords told them: "Reach this number by the time of the next expansion." So the developers are doing exactly that.

You don't dismiss players by telling them flat out there is no compromise. The willingness to listen in response means critically laying out why something doesn't work.

What's happening here is essentially they just used their loyal fanbase to spread word far enough so they can market this game the way they're doing it now. They never cared. As you say, it started becoming inconvenient.

Perhaps they did at some point, but now their priorities lie elsewhere.