The new player experience and how FFXIV fails as an MMO.

[Mawlzy]

Sure, but the description was created for games where that was a palpable part of the actual gameplay. Outside of the latest EM content and FATEs early in each expansion, that's rarely the case here. You could reach a majority of the game's new-player-facing gameplay in any single-player game that offers drop-in multiplayer through which to replace the core supporting NPCs in content (say, Divinity 2, BG3).

And from the origin of the genre, "solo play" has always been supported, as outlined by the Josh Strife Hayes video I refer to often.

I would agree that FFXIV for some reason makes playing with others difficult in a lot of content.