Strange player quirk from FFXI and now in XIV

[Preypacer]

So, this post is not a "complaint" but more a request for some opinions or feedback on a very odd thing I've experienced in FFXI and now in FFXIV - but have never experienced in any other MMORPG I've ever played.

I've noticed that while in XP parties (not being PL'd, just normal straight-forward xp-parties) that there are many players who, once the group hits a good rhythm, the xp is flowing in nicely, and things are going smoothly, they'll decide "hey, let's go kill some much harder stuff instead".

And in every case, at least for me, it ends up with people dying, xp slowing to a crawl, lots of downtime, people getting frustrated and dropping the group and, in many cases, the group disbanding altogether. All because certain people insisted we fight tougher mobs.

I can recall a small novel's worth of such situations in XI (particularly one memorable one in Qufim involving Acrophes), and in almost every case it ended badly. And now I had exactly the same thing happen last night in XIV.

Case in point, last night I'm in a group and we're fighting in Copperbell Mines, on the ants. Things were rough at first until we found a great camp spot and figured out a good pattern/rhythm to kill in. Then things smoothed out and, as levels started rolling in, the xp started coming nice and quickly, we were getting Chain 6s, no down-time, taking on 2-3 at a time and doing beautifully. It wasn't a cakewalk, mind you. If we had, say, 1 or 2 more link on, it would have been a wipe. So we were definitely in that sweet spot. We were high 20s and the mobs were between 35 and 39.

We've got an amazing flow going, things are going beautifully and then the party leader says "Hey I want to go kill some Coblyns. Let's go do that" (to paraphrase). Then proceeds to run off back toward the coblyns. I protested by way of asking why they wanted to change locations when we were doing so well already. I didn't get much of an answer beyond that the leader wanted to do it.

End result, the Coblyns were too high level/too tough. People died. One person had to leave in 15 minutes and so they just dropped out then. Another person left after they did. The whole group ended up back in Uldah trying to rebuild with almost an hour wasted. That would have been at least 1 to 1.5 levels, maybe more, at the rate we were going.

All because getting chain 6s with xp in the high 500s, with no down-time, no deaths and a nice flow of fights going wasn't good enough for the group leader and they insisted on fighting something tougher.

A Linkshell mate noted that they'd experienced it a lot in XIV as well, and worse in some cases.

Now again, I have never experienced this in any other MMORPG. FFXI was the first time I ever saw it, and now I see it again in XIV.

So, I'm genuinely curious and hope someone can maybe shed some light on why it is people are more prone to do this in XI and XIV? What is the logic in it, if any at all?