I have to agree. I expected a LOT more from CoP. Honestly. But perhaps some of the blame still lies with the players. As you said, the XPers (the vast majority) don't give a shit about breaking the cycle. Then again, does it matter? You're still XPing on similar mobs. The new areas are, once again, nothing more than quest fodder. The only time anyone ever wants to go to them is for a quest item or something. The Tavnazia areas seem cool, but Promyvion was made way too difficult. If you only had to beat one, OK, but all 3 takes considerable effort. I still think the few LS people who made it through did it by luck. Make the later Prom missions hard, not the very first one. Also, while they promised 40 new areas, and they kind of delivered, it really DOESN'T feel like 40 new areas. Hell, they didn't even change the world map, just stuck stuff in the gaps. Do you honestly want me to believe that tiny-ass island off of Vollbow is the entire kingdom of Tavnazia? Bullshit. And the lack of new equipment is just ass. The enchantment items are fairly useless when you might as well just buy the potions/pebbles/whatever that you want and use them when you need to instead of dealing with the timer.
For a year + worth of work, I would've expected more out of the expansion. Maybe the PS2 really is holding the game back, but S-E doesn't even seem to be putting in the effort to at least try and circumvent the limitations. We ask for customization and they're like "FUCK NO!!!" instead of "Well, the PS2 kind of limits our ability to do full customization, but maybe we can implement a color-dye system or something that really shouldn't tax the system." FFXI still has a lot of potential, but I feel that it is increasingly catering to a certain group.
I'm not about to skip out on it for WoW, because it'll likely turn into the same thing at some point, but who knows. CoP could've been so much more and it should've been because they really hyped it up to be and it just didn't deliver.
What, like 15-20 new quests (not dozens)? New missions (haven't even finished implementing them yet? wtf? but since nobody wants to go through promyvion, nobody cares)? New equipment (huh? where? Most of it is extremely specialized, but specialized for certain classes, leaving other classes out in the cold)? 40+ new areas (Burning Circles/Boss Areas shouldn't be considered areas...they're like one room and serve one purpose. about 10-12 of these new areas are promyvion or dynamis related. Once again, the Tav areas might be neat, but nobody has fucking access)?
Then we have to remember the distinct lack of new classes, abilities, weaponskills, etc. that would fundamentally change/tweak the way our characters play. Sure, some of these things can be added through patches, but why not with the expansion when you have the opportunity?
Anyway, I'm done ranting. You've all discussed this, so you probably already know anyway. Just adding me 2 cents since I haven't been on lately.