What's even the point of doing savage?

[technole]

Don't forget Eureka/Bozja.

And I don't mean the Relics. I mean the Elemental+ and Judge gear.

ALSO content that isn't for everyone, but that gear is BiS for those zones. Elemental +2 is the BiS gear for Eureka itself because of the bonuses, and people do still do that content, like Baldesion Arsenal. And I THINK some of it is (or was) BiS for some BLU builds.

...which can also be considered side/horizontal content.

But I agree there's not a lot of it. One of the things I wish FFXIV had more of would be open world type content.

Yep. I like horizontal gear progression, but one per expansion is good enough. Bozja was a good one, all gear is the same except for ones with Haste bonuses and it's a pretty sizable DPS increase. Still have my DR Savage BiS and Eureka Physeos weapons +2 BiS gear in the inventory since I still go into those from time-to-time. Casuals say it's a waste of time but where else do we get gear that never 'expires' in the game? I'll wait.

If they went too wild with horizontal our inventory would be even more nuttier, so it's a two-fold issue too. Content needs to use it, but also it needs to be justified.