With FFXVI potential success and the new SE CEO, I suspect YoshiP might hand over FFXIV to someone else prior to 8.0 whether by himself or under an assignment to work on a more important project. The reason why I say 8.0 is because according to YoshiP himself, he's busy with 7.0 and I think it can be quite disastrous to change directors mid-development. That being said, 7.x series could also be a good time to change the director.

Overall, I do respect YoshiP for turning FFXIV from a poor XI clone to a successful standalone game, but he's been playing safe for quite a while and we need a fresh blood and perspectives in the development team.

I remember YoshiP said in the last LL that a lot of features in MMOs that he likes aren't popular anymore, and I suspect he's talking about old school MMOs, which I'd love to see more around (Old school systems like Class/Job fantasy).