How about this? FFXI might not have been faster, but each action I took felt alot more tactical and meaningful as opposed to most of the skills in FFXIV being boring and direct damage skills.

As a DRK/SAM I had alot to do between watching for stun, using WS, absorbing TP and meditating, using my buffs like Last resort or Souleater at the right times to kill a mob and not take too much hate, draining or aspiring, absorbing a stat to buff a WS

You get the picture?

Though I will agree the overall reason FFXI was more enjoyable was because it felt less clunky