Hated that prick. I'm glad he's dead. Wasn't a fan of his build a bear either.
I didn't hate the msq it just wasn't memorable.
But to be fair, I thought pretty much the same for Endwalker. You take out all the "hey member," and the story kinda sucks.
Where something like Shadowbringers stands on it own. It has some issues, sure, but the highs are as high as they can go while the lows are still better than what we've gotten since.