Are you really comparing a fate grind with a fate grind? And then praise one and criticize the other? Ok.
I think they should be doing something with leaves, the system feels so useless currently. They should be doing something with GC rank. I would have liked to see that progression in a "open world deep dungeon" is tied to relic progress of your server. Unless your server clears certain levels and stages, you won't get access to the next upgrade. Make guilds and their leaders have special guild buffs for such content, let their banner be risen on a completed stage, so everyone knows who cleared the floor - or recleared it. Let the guild who captured it decide how to develop the area further, similar to Ishgard Restoration.

Give purpose to the existing systems. SE has to decide if they wanna be a MMORPG, making content for more than 1 player, or not.