Yoshi never said FFXIV 2.0 is going to be an MMO on rails, he only said he wants to make sure "players know where to go and what activities are there to do once they enter a new map" as you quoted.
Example of how this can be added without it being an MMO on rails?
Let's say you travel around Thanalan, and you enter a new map. A few meters in front of you you see a signpost at which a group of NPCs is camping. If you talk to them, they say stuff like "Travelers told us about 3 ferocious beasts roaming this area..apearently one is a giant ant and another one a herd of XY (cow-thingys?). I hope we don't get attacked!"
Heck, they could even give you a quest of finding and slaying the NMs (of course without a quest map).
That way you know in this area you can slay NMs X, Y and Z but exploring that area or even finding the NMs if you want to kill them is all up to you.

Thinking about it, you probably are not extremely overreacting..just totally dramatizing the idea of "letting the player know what is there to do in this area".