About the whole singleplayerification of FFXIV, Imo this is not an issue at all, lots of people have tight schedules and cannot progress MSQ if they can only play around dead hours, having an alternate mean of completing these dungeons is not a bad thing.
One could say FF is one of those MMOs where you can easily be a loner outside of some specific content, which gives greater freedom, yadayada yada.. Most importantly, no servers are kept up forever, just take a look at TERA shutdown, I'd much prefer being able to enjoy/replay FFXIV in some form even as a singleplayer/co-op experience than have the rug dragged from under us entirely and be left with nothing. Try to think of it as far-future proofing if anything.