Game design doesn't have to be that black and white. Even XIII-2 has some depth in it when you're doing endgame.
FF X has a lot of depth and complex stuff to uncover even if the main storyline was super linear.

What in XIV really bugs me is that an npc uses 9 lines of text to describe where I need to go and then the map marker appears. Even in situations where it makes no sense at all that my character suddenly just knows where a mob is.

There usually is a big disconnect between gameplay and story. It's like quest designers were only allowed to do one type of activity and the writers are powerless to make the 2 parts of the game work together.