The time gating only works if there is underlying content that makes it worth sticking around for. Personally, I think that FFXIV is doing much better than most games in the genre but it has certain areas it struggles with like having a system where one character can be every job, but then suffering from the consequences by having a huge historic backlog of gear bloat. You wouldn't think a problem that some people suffer in real life with having to deal with a basement full of your grandparents and parents stuff would happen in an MMO, but it happens here. The other place FFXIV is struggling with now is finding its footing after completing the big story loop of started after the calamity. Job design quibbles aside, they shouldn't have done what they did with the story. A lot of plot points that an entire expansion could have been birthed off of were concluded in minor raid series, to the point they even killed off all the Gods in a single 24 man raid series. It's like they are allergic to something around that old plot and now we have this really weird story where this land has literally ZERO repercussions economically from the rest of the world pooling its resources to deal with an ancient calamity.

If I were guessing, I'd say most people are stopping because of those two main issues more than the rate people are getting geared. I've seen better times in the content drought between patches during Endwalker than this and that says something considering Endwalker had nearly nothing to do outside catching up on older content, island sanctuary, and maybe manderville stuff.