So what exactly is driving the developers to keep going?

[TheDecay]

Yes, of course they are burned out, why else do you think we got Endwalker.

And those strict schedules? They have broken them all the time since Shadowbringers. You can no longer rely on the "schedule" if you want to take time off for week 1 prog. No one remembers when they screwed thousands of week 1 raiders off because they delayed EW for 2 weeks?

Exactly how is this state of affairs admirable? We're no longer in Stormblood when patch cadence was actually speedy and predictable.