To be clear, it's not a perfect game.
Though I probably shouldn't, allow me to at least partially debate this to maybe clarify for anyone who is still thinking about playing this game.
Linear is nothing more than a flavor, and it's clearly not yours. Why for one people try to make the word "linear" itself sound like a negative connotation is beyond me. You know what I find open world non-linear games to be? Annoying and overwhelming. I don't need to be able to climb to the top of any hill I see in the distance. And half the time, when you do, what do you find? Jack shit, because the designer intended it as nothing more than an illusion to make you feel like "you can go anywhere". My imagination is already suspended enough when i'm running around as a magical cat girl in a dungeon with rainbow lava shooting out of mountains in the distance; not being able to run and climb that mountain isn't exactly ruining my immersion.
Housing, granted needs some work with it's permissions, expirations of properties, and just adding more housing instances in general.
Healing is for women and we've plenty of them in this game. Play a man's job.
Gil has the exact same purpose that you find in any other MMO out there, especially when there are billions of it in the economy. I'd like to hear suggestions as to what we should get to do with our gil other than the current system, as I can't really think of any alternative? Should we be forced to spend it more? I don't get the complaint here.
I can't speak on customer support problems. I've had to call them maybe 3 times in the last 8 years? And my issue was worked out with expedience and excellent customer service. I've heard some stories of some bad times, but not enough that are true or unexaggerated to make me write off the entire customer support team.
What rules? Who needs rules and discipline in this game? Like what the shit are you doing where these types of things come into effect? I have to ask because i've been actively playing this game almost every day for 8 years, both casual and raiding/ultimate endgame and i've yet to encounter a situation where a GM needed to even be called to "mete out discipline". Give me some examples here because right now i'm assuming this is probably some retarded in-game role-playing jazz.
I was worried at first when they implemented that whole 3 strike system bullshit, but in essence it's actually not that bad. What do we get from it? Well, people have to at least pretend to be decent folk most of the time. Oh damn, I don't get to tell someone they suck a big donkey dick at their job and should kill themselves. It's almost like I have to behave in game like I do outside of the game with the general public. Wild concept.
There is still plenty of social activity going on though; it's hardly limited to FC/RP bubbles. Go join some linkshells, some fellowships. They have one for about every social group under the sun. Live a little, make some friends.
RMT - I don't know what to say here, I mean yeah they exist but I haven't gotten an RMT spam /tell in 4+ years. The only time I see anything is if I swing into Limsa/Uldah and there is probably one by the aetheryte spamming the /say channel. That's about it. How often are you running into bots exactly? I see them standing around town rarely, maybe out in the lower level zones doing some automated gathering but hardly enough to even warrant much of my attention.
Plagued seems like a gross overexaggeration.
Look, it's clear you still appreciate the game and it's beauty, and i'm not trying to say this game is without flaws or problems by any means, but I had to at least paint the picture here that there is another point of view from the way you pointed things out to be. I'm not trying to be antagonistic or anything here, but as someone who's spent a lot of time in this game for almost the last decade, I have to voice my experiences when I see some misinformation like this.
