The trouble with FF14 wasn't that it was a Sandbox. It was just a box. It didn't have any sand in it. If they think making it a theme park will change the quality look at what they have added. Several random quests that offer absolutely nothing. There is a guy standing outside Uldah. He has a quest, I have been ignoring it for going on 2 years because it offers less exper than I can get from running out and killing a single copper coblyn. To run up noreth and find 3 more quests that do the exact same thing.

The demise of FF14 wasn't the sandbox aspect. It was the complete lack of scaling and content.