What is going on with Square Enix and the 14 team?

[Kranel_San]

I mean there's Lost Ark??? I heard a lot of praise for it despite it being pay 2 win.

I can see why you would think so, but comparing FFXIV with Lost Ark is similar to comparing WoW with Runescape. They're MMO but not the same type of MMOs.
You can compare Lost Ark to Path of exile but you can't compare both to FFXIV and WoW
You can compare Albion online with Runescape but you can't compare them to both Lost Ark and Path of exile.
Different aspects and focuses that you can't just simply compare. Trying to do so is like comparing cars with buses or trucks. They run on the same road and are identical in similarities yet so different, and so are MMOs
Currently, nothing really stands out in the field. New world died, ESO and GW2 are getting expansions but aren't really standing out from the crowd and WoW just lost its playerbase. I'm having hopes that WoW's next expansion will take a positive curve into improvements and that Ashes of creation will turn out to be a great game (Its really promising in my opinion) so that the competition and the genre will be revived.