The Content Cycle needs to break.

[Jeeqbit]

Except back then, patches were shorter, so waiting time was not as awful.
Patch cadence has increased, so Square Enix needs to bring long lived content earlier.

Shorter by a month. People were saying there was nothing to do back then as well. It's always been a sentiment that has existed; it's just increased as more people completed their personal backlog of content.

In a live service game, wanting to keep people excited for whats to come, engaged for the patch duration, and interested enough to want to come back later is critical for the health of said live service game.

Is honestly true of just regular game franchises as well. If there is a poorly received sequel it can be pretty bad for the next game in the series and potentially doom the rest of the series, or set it on a course where it runs into the ground.