And they could have completed that setup within the span of 5 minutes if their writers were not under the apparent obligation to include 1-2 fanservice slice of life scenes each patch. WoL goes to tavern, sees ad for a ferry to Meracydia, and goes on it. Short sweet and to the point. No need for long speeches about orphanages or catboy fanservice scenes. It's been ages since I did the unlock for FFXI's Aht Urhgan, but I remember doing maybe 1 or 2 quests before I found myself on a ferry headed across the ocean to the expansion zones. It really can be that simple.
If people want fanservice of the Scions then I highly recommend the FFXIV high school manga. Apparently they just released their beach episode equivalent and Zenos took his shirt off and his fans went rabid over that earlier, forcing it into my sector of twitter where I am usually safe from their repeated antics. Contain that sector of the playerbase over there and let's have an actual story in the main game that respects our time by not forcing those kinds of scenes onto us.
You cannot hope to retain those of us who are here for story and those of us who are here for gameplay with the current direction of both. Red flags popping up on either side doesn't make for a good experience, and instead of excitement my anticipation for the next round of patches leans more towards concern. I know AST might apparently get a rework soon too-are they seriously going to ruin the only healer I can stand to play long-term and then give me a scene of G'raha Tia eating ice cream cones in the Void on top of it? Dragoon apparently is on the list of things to "fix" too, I can't wait to see what logic will underpin the potential decision to remove their jumps or something.
Patch 6.1 has undermined people's confidence in the game across various aspects that we enjoy and hold dear. One can only hope that attention is paid before it is too late but it seems that chat bubbles, streamer bans, and policing pvp chats have taken priority over these other issues.