The issue with FFXIV isn't that it's attempting to emulate WoW, (It's not.)

The issue is that the FFXIV devs have become arrogant, just like the Blizzard in 2018. They think they can get away with anything, and everything. Oblivious to the rising discontent within their community by simply ignoring and brushing their feedback under the rug. Lower quality content, longer patch cycles, complete absence of communication, and the dev team being COMPLETELY out of touch with the community. There is clearly a slow bleed off of the community and I don't think they care.

Square Enix likely knows that they don't have to introduce much content into this game anymore to boost revenue. They can just put out a mogstation set/mount and all the whales will pay for the subs that have dropped off. Long term consequences be damned, they only pledged to keep this game around another 10 years, longer patches mean less work. And you bet the trashy mobile version is going to be raking in the money without any effort on their part. Welcome to games managed by AAA developers who prioritize profit over your personal enjoyment of their products.