Quote Originally Posted by LioJen View Post
Except they didn't really tear anything down to start again, they built on top of what was already there. Which is why we are faced with so many insurmountable problems today, like the pitiful character creation options from 2005 and the weird class/job stone system.
No, they definitely tore a fair bit down outright, not just between 1.x and ARR, but also between pre- and post-Yoshida in 1.x.

The job stone system, too, was Yoshida, done in preparation for ARR. The entire "build your own job" concept from pre-Yoshida 1.x was torn down to create the later zero-customization jobs.