And yet, people remember it fondly.

Why is that?

The simple answer is that a lot of Heavensward's content was fresh, something that players have not seen before. It felt like something brand new.

PotD felt fresh to players. We have never seen something like that before. Whereas Eureka Orthos feels like a reskin of PotD and HoH with close to zero new ideas.

The major reason why Endwalker feels bad for many players isn't actually the volume of the content. It's the volume of excitement. There is very little exciting new content in Endwalker, and the few new things they put in Endwalker have been very uninspiring, like the horrendously shallow Island Sanctuary and Variant dungeons being only three routes that are padded to become twelve with next to no difference in gameplay (unless you count pushing a tree or not pushing a tree as a meaningful difference in gameplay).

It's also the fact that the systems have overstayed their welcome. We've been on the same gear treadmill for nearly 8 years now. Same use for tomestones. Even something as mundane as crafting recipes have become so predictable that one can farm half of what they need with confidence before the patch is even live.

And the regular content that we're receiving no longer has the charm. Every dungeon and non-Ultimate raid today are reusing the same mechanics again and again: stack, spread, dodge left, dodge right, in, out, pyretic, move around, look away, etc.

Even if Dawntrail releases field content, the same criticisms will remain because people are sick of the formula. We desperately need a shake-up and far, far more innovation.

FF14 in Endwalker is not an atrocious game, but it is just boring. Unexciting. Samey. Rehashed.