To be fair, just because the coding is different that does not mean that FFXIV cannot take note of what rival MMO's are doing and seek to take what works and refine it with some personal flair. Back when WoW took itself seriously that is precisely what its development team did - and such a model worked pretty well for quite some time.

As far as I'm concerned gamers are far too eager to make excuses for very wealthy companies that absolutely could stand to invest more time and effort into their products. It's how pretty much every other industry seeking to expand operates. A supermarket, for example, will consistently invest in refining its products and the selection therein so that it can be equal or better than its rivals.

If anything, I think that the lack of direct competition is hurting FFXIV immensely by making it complacent.