That balance is hard to find both ways. For all of my complaints about Endwalker's story and themes, that doesn't change the fact that I'm glad it attempted them. A lot of people have stated they just want their FF game to be an experience where they can just turn their brain off and escape, without thinking about things like "themes" or relevant moral dilemmas, but that's the attitude I can't disagree with enough. When I first got into FFXIV, the friend who brought me in warned me "DO NOT skip the story -- even the slow bits. Trust me," and I'm glad I didn't. As teeth-grittingly frustrating as FFXIV's story, plot and characters can get at times, I'm glad the writers tried.

Endwalker (post-Elpis) was more miss for me than hit, but I'm still glad I went through it, because (if nothing else), I'm glad I got to actually sit and think about what parts and elements of the story bothered me. Naturally, I would definitely like the story more if these bothersome elements had been done better, but if there hadn't been anything at all, I just wouldn't care. I'd rather debate for hours about what a story did that didn't work than put it down and think "Okay, that happened, I guess".