FFXIV outdated patch cycle is one of the biggest issues in terms of content cadence.

[Eyrilona]

And then there are the Hildibrand stories, into which a lot of time is invested with each expansion, even though a lot of players have no interest in this content at all.
Couldn't all that time have been used better and something new created? For example, a banker in the game who stores all items, so that retainers only sell items or go exploring?

I didn't want to be the one to point this out, but if you are going by the numbers of what percentage of players engage with the different content types, then one of the things that would be 'logical' to stop creating to free up developer time for QoL and other things, would be the savage raids and ultimates... so maybe this isn't a good way to approach it.