The game is too easy, while simultaneously doing nothing to teach players what their job abilities does or when to use them. The training offered by the Smithy is a joke that doesn't prepare completely wet-behind-the-ears sprouts enough.

Most of the time you will not see a dungeon boss to its full potential, because by the time it is halfway through its kit, you've killed it. When a boss actually uses a tank buster (extremely rare) it hits like a bad joke and you'll barely see the tank's HP move.
The only real threat to a tank dying in dungeons is during double pulls because either the tank or the healer, or both, don't know their job properly or have suitable gear.
There are some rare instancecs where a party might fail anyway on a boss, but you can clear almost every dungeon in the game with a dead healer or a dead tank, or just forego having a healer altogether. Like you'd do for the so-called """expert dungeons""", which are so painfully easy that it feels offensive.
Nowadays you'll be shocked if a duty contains an action that can be interrupted by players, you'll be shocked if a boss applies debuffs on the party that has to be removed or mitigated.

The only "midcore" experience I get in this game is by queueing for mentor roulette and getting an old extreme trial where the party is mostly new players who have to learn a lot of mechanics, and it actually brings me joy to see them learn and actually beat the fight. It's one of the best feelings in the game remaining. Beyond that, it's just mindless instance after mindless instance.

Once you've finished wiping your drool off your chin, and maybe a tear if the story had a good part, you might think that trying whatever is current tier of savage would be fun. And it's like the game decided to punch you in the gut. Nothing beforehand prepares you for what extremes and savage fights have in store for you. But then you learn (hopefully), and things start to get stale again.


FFXIV made its bed, by making content increasingly easy, it is making players turn off their brains.
Why learn how your job works, or its optimal rotation if there's literally nothing in the game that requires you to do so except end-game raiding.
Want to spam Medica 2 constantly? Go for it, game won't punish you for it anyway, despite it being a bad thing to do.
Want to never do a proper combo as a melee job? Go for it! You won't be punished anyway.

I know this isn't anymore the game I loved, and it probably never will be again as much as it pains me to admit that. I don't see any reason for the devs to change their course, because they've gotten an influx of bright eyed sprouts who are not experienced enough to see all the flaws the game has now. And whenever those sprouts become veterans and see the issues the game has, it won't matter, because here's a new carriage of sprouts!
So nothing will improve for us dissatisfied with the game's difficulty.