My biggest problem, isn't so much the "dumbing down". It's the fact that they stressed the "solo-friendly" aspect so much, that group work isn't required for anything anymore outside duty finder. Even then, that's mostly with people not even on your own server.
Making grouping basically mandatory in FFXI was one of its greatest strengths early on. You were forced to interact, talk to, and otherwise meet players. In this game, it just feels like you're playing a solo game with other people running around, similar as to how i felt in WoW. Even just to have the ability to do XP parties (which you might even be able to for viable XP) would be a great thing to force a tutorial on. The single aspect duties sorta fulfill this, but even then it's probably nobody you'll see again, and they generally only last 5 mins.
I love the game, the combat, the various systems, but I can tell you the reason I played FFXI for 8 years wasn't the combat or the loot, it was the people I met along the way.
