The problem is that they haven't decided to invest into meaningful ways to do content in the open world and most of it ends up being a grindfest at the exact same location for everyone even remotely interested in doing MMO like content.

FFXIV is a very linear game, so all of it's solutions are linear. Modern MMOs approach this problem in two ways. Way number 1 is to have non-linear solutions that progress you to the same point, such as not having to do each part of a string of quests in an exact order, starting players at different locations depending on a choice they can make or by creating a world event with multiple ways to earn reward towards character progression surrounding the quests needed to progress in whatever content is being done.

Solution number 2 is Phasing or sharding, similar to instances, but simply having a certain amount of people allowed in said shard or phase of the open world, this allows them to control the amount of people you see thus making the interactions more personal. Sadly XIV doesn't utilize sharding seamlessly, like other MMOs use phasing seamlessly. you have to manually switch and sadly XIV doesn't use this during major events all the time.

FF also has become more Discord Oriented, which I am wholly against due to it making the game feel very dead, I enjoy that in other games I play people are talking and conversing about content we're all doing and making groups for content. I suggest to you if you care, to not let others discourage you, this is a very serious issue with the state of the game for many other like minded players, we want said issue to change to. Hopefully we'll see that happen one day!