I notice most of the people agreeing with the OP's opinions, and they are opinions, are Legacy players. Look I get it, you guys enjoyed where FF14 was going, and that was to an early grave. 1.23 was not bringing a new population in, it was just attempting to stop the current hemorrhaging. ARR exists to appeal to the general masses and make money, and despite how many times you voice your disapproval of it, it is doing what it intended to do, draw more people. Your post might as well just be of the alphabet, because nothing you said is going to change anything (for that I am happy, but this is my opinion and it is just as valid as yours, not valid at all).

You want a grindcentric game? Okay, come on down to FFXI. I have been in FFXI since 2003, I have done the HNMLS thing, the COP thing, the Abyssea thing and so on and so forth. It has gotten a little old. I am more than thrilled with the route ARR went. I am no longer 19 and live with my mom and dad working 30 hours a week as a Game Stop assistant manager where my only responsibilities are my shiny sports car and if I want the cheeseburger at Denny's tonight or mozarella sticks. This game allows me to step into it, play and accomplish things and then turn it off when it is time for me to help my son with his homework and not worry about falling so far behind that sticking around is moot. And, here is the part you need to understand the most, there are more of my type than there are of your type and my type has the money (not saying you don't have a job or have money). We are the people who don't bat an eye to a 15.00 a month subscription for every other weekend use, chances are that our cards are not going to get lost or cancelled and we will be long time subscribers even if we are casual players and that translates to money, moolah, the cheese, the thing SE is after. They went the route you seemingly despise because of that and that alone.

Abilities can tweaked and retweaked and reworked through-out the life of the game. Even new ones added, you can turn to FFXI for prime proof of that. Heck they added Refresh nearly a year after JP release because Red Mage was so undesirable. Multiple DD class jobs got a litany of abilities through-out their tenure in the game. New spells added all the time, etc. You haven't even had a chance to truly explore these abilities in 2.0, so how about you do that, then write a novel filled with opinion?

Gear, really? You think any new MMO comes with OMFG awesome gear? Please. FFXI's AF was quickly put into the pile of useless crap after just about a year of game play. Heck most people don't even quest any of it anymore on their way from 1 to 99. It has no value. Sorry Legacy players, but just because you have the gear and deem it boring and worthless, doesn't mean it is. If you can stand there and seriously tell me you didn't expect this to happen while they work the new people into the game, then you have WAY bigger issues than I can help you with, namely the fact that you only care about yourself and your experience and not that of building this new potential community. Heck, they can go the route you want, and then when they bleed the scores of people that are so desperately needed to keep this afloat, you guys can all reminisce over your uber grind fests and full time job's worth of gear as you watch the cut-scene where Bahamut destroys Eorzea for good right before the servers go black forever.