I like to think FFXIV tries to sort of build an entire house with different materials serving as the bricks and foundations.

What I mean by this is that they want to have different areas of the map that serve to impress or make a group of people who play the game enjoy seeing it. Everyone has different tastes and aesthetics.
I can agree that going from something like, say Camp Drybone, where everyone is just this robed trader or dying sick citizen, and then on the other side of the world you got this BIG bright city with neon lights and high class skinsuits to match.

It's sort of equivalent to being a time traveler and showing a peasant child from the 1400's what an MLG Montage is. I'm highly sure they would just combust spontaneously.