I agree with OP on many points...

This MMO has the Final Fantasy name tied to it...not just a random MMO. Yoshi continues to say how he has played all of the FF and he wants to incorporate more "Final Fantasy" into this game. I know you can't directly compare the FF games to a MMO...however...all the previous FF never gave me much of an instanced feel. We got to explore the huge world map, looking and checking everywhere for treasures, NM encounters, hidden mini quests, etc.

These instances we have atm do not feel like Final Fantasy at all. I will admit Hamlet Defense (I only did a few of them, wiped due to not being able to do it with pick ups) does give me a bit of Final Fantasy feel. But yeah I guess my point is having played all of the FF they all gave me this feeling of exploring and having to look EVERYWHERE for extra mini quests, mini games, hoping to find a NM/HNM in a random encounter.

When they went from FF9 to FF10 I remember everyone was saying how linear FF10 was..and that was its main downside. That is how instanced stuff feels to me in XIV.

Open world content seems to give more of the traditional FF feel that SE seems to be promoting. However there is little to none of it atm but I will of course reserve further judgement until their 2.0 campaign and of course, playing 2.0 lol.