I tend to agree with your sentiments. I did feel that FFXIV always lacked a concrete, long-term goal to accomplish with non-gear rewards. People will call it elitism and claim exclusivity is not a virtue, but the feeling you get when you first stepped out onto Sea after months of hard work was exhilarating. The vista alone was beautiful, but even that would not have been the same without the feeling of accomplishment that "I have achieved this view through my own struggles and hard work".