Just remember XI didnt have areas like these either at release. They came with expansions.

Will we see a sky or sea or anything of that sort? Likely since FF titles almost always include areas in the sky and under the water. So optimism is your friend here ^^ the big question is whether or not they will be instanced. I'm hoping they will do a mix of instanced and non-instanced. The mistake I hope they do not repeat is putting non-instanced, highly sought after nm in a far away spot with a 24-48+ hr respawn. Bad enough you had to camp a nm for 4 days non-stop just to loose it to another ls, but it made it all the more rage inducing when you lost it to the armies of bots that always sat there. So instances have there merits.

The only thing I had with sky in xi was that it was very disappointing graphically to me, where sea was wonderous when you first entered. Sky basically was a floating delkfutts with a tree here and there. I was so excited and when I got there I was kindda let down. I have high hopes for anything this dev team does tho, esp since after the cut and paste nightmare of v1 I am sure they are going to try to make areas more unique in 2.0