I genuinely don't get a lot of free time for gaming and devoted that time to FFXIV to be honest. But I occasionally revisit the game I played for twelve years before a combination of burnout and disdain of it's business model led me to listen to my best friend's suggestions (backed up with screenshots) to try FFXIV.

That previous game was STO (Star Trek Online). I still log in very occasionally - mostly to see what Stipend I've amassed (since I purchased a lifetime subscription shortly after I started playing). However - the rest of what I say here is entirely personal opinion based on my own experience of the game: the game lost all appeal to me as the frequency of the new content decreased and they turned their attention VERY much to lootboxes and stupidly expensive "bundles" (often to the value of £300) of in-game items.
It also became catastrophically easy. The problem with having a hyper-focus on selling stuff is that what you're selling has to be better than what came before it. STO did absolutely nothing to keep the powercreep in check; a piece of raid-type content that, a few years ago, took 25 minutes to complete took all of 12 seconds the last time I played it.
And that Stipend? Healthy amount of in-game currency..... but I have no interest in buying anything; both because nothing in the game interests me and I abhor the idea of basically encouraging their business model.

I could carry on but that isn't what this thread is about. Again, I still log in from time-to-time but nine times out of ten just feel nostalgic for what the game once was and log out again.