Thematic issues. Why all the sci fi.

[Basteala]

Because the Sci-Fi technology sucks.

When Garlemald attacked Eorzea with battle mechs and laser guns, they were repelled by axeman and magicians. When Garlemald threw a moon(!) with a terrible demon inside at their enemies, it was repelled by a guy with a staff.
When Alexandria's Star Wars Army attacked Shaaloani, they were repelled by some cowboys with rubber bullets /s/, and a guy with a lance.

Why would the classical Fantasy population want to use a technology they do not understand, and which is proven to be inferior to their axes and fireballs?

That being said, I'm absolutely ok with some level of Sci-Fi in FF14 - Magitek, Allagan, time travel, and the like. But a future mega city with neon lights and Starbucks? That's just a big no in my book.

This is actually an interesting point. I think the "magicians" are being understated here a little bit. In a combative sense, the gap between the two isn't that large, if at all.

Which might make sense. All magitek does is manipulate the six elements of aether to create a desired result--this is literally no different than what a mage does. Magitek devices ultimately just create a surrogate body to manipulate the aether that Garleans can't (obviously past a certain size like transport vessels this becomes an entirely different argument, but at a footman and fireball vs walker argument it kind of pans out).

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You are my new favorite person on these forums.