Genuinely, What am I missing?

[Kaurhz]

While I appreciate the deeper analysis, our tools were not as robust back then and simply not as well programmed because the community was smaller and we simply hadn't optimized the fun out of everything yet. If the crafting suite had not been touched at all from then to now, we'd still have Teamcraft calculating the most optimal rotation within a day of a new craft recipe landing. That's just the nature of modern MMOs.

They were not as robust, that I agree with, but functionally for rotation building they really weren't that different aside from true pinpoint accuracy (largely on progress), but generally across the board you would very rarely find yourself in a position where something broke in-game but didn't break in sim.. People were pushing out rotations within the day on tools such as Lokyst, even when the community was much smaller, when the tools weren't as well programmed, and often required people forking it. The community may also be much larger now, but the number of people actively sharing resources hasn't really changed a great deal (since a larger set of the playerbase is more than happy just using someone else's solution, only major difference is where you might find them, e.g., centralized hub on TC, versus Google Doc, YouTube Video or Forums), especially since Stormblood era, and nor has the underlying skill of the people producing them.. Further, Teamcraft wasn't really building the rotation for you, you were still creating the rotation yourself, it was only until Raph where it fully build it for you (Which is a very very new development). People were still doing the "Let's optimize the fun out of this" mentality even back in Stormblood (Players would go to very significant lengths - Much more than they do now, I would argue). The whole tealess/foodless spec/non-spec, rotation specific gear, reuse/reclaim combo rotations are testament to this fact.

We can argue around this point for a millenia, but the abilities back then lent themselves to a more engaging experience, even if you were optimizing the fun out of it.

Besides, much of this also ignores the simple fact that the ability suite back then was far more engaging than it is now, which matters significantly for content such as experts, where it isn't necessarily optimizing the fun out of it, but testing yourself.. Hence why I made this comment:

Sure we still have experts, but these do not hold a candle, because the gathering for them is still woefully simplified, as is the supporting ability toolkit, and this is a fundamental issue.. They are trying to make everyone happy by putting these systems on top.. Whether it's expert crafting or whatever else.. A lot of that is undone by the abilities supporting that content.

I can tell you simply that the developers have streamlined this specific content far more than what the players have optimized the fun out of the content.

Besides, with all due respect (and I mean it genuinely), when did you start playing anyway? (Like crafting-wise)