Not sure if other people would share this opinion but I really think that the speed at which we can explore zones even without flying makes it too easy to ignore the world outside of just getting from objective A to B. And I think because of that they are less incentivized to spend time developing small bits of the world because people just don't want to 90% of the time in the games current state.

If the game was built around exploring on the ground more and having a more natural breathing world then it would make sense to put way more time and resources into these ideas but FFXIV hasn't been that way for a very long time, and I think the team acknowledged that when they put flying in ARR zones.

I think the only options at this point is either rework flying / mounts to facilitate meaningful world exploration or to keep going the path they are on where every zone is a static set piece for the story they want to tell.

One thing that should be fixed though is that every zone feels like a total non-issue to navigate / fight through. World mobs in FFXIV are worthless and only exist to add some sense of ecology to the world and have never posed a threat outside of very rare hunt monsters / fates. All fates are as threatening as bubble wrap and the monsters don't even have the strength to pop it. It would definitely help fix the problem with how the MSQ is more of a movie instead of a video game...