Just sharing some thoughts on this as I procrastinate weekend working.
I am a relatively new player to FFXIV. I started earnestly about a year ago, after getting to around level 35 in the MSQ way back in 2015. Before FFXIV, my main MMO was Guild Wars 2 for around 9 years and prior to that WoW for around a similar amount of time.
As I progressed through the earlier expansions I was assured that the story was fantastic, even if major leaps in logic
spoiler
such as the construction of the huge Talos to reach Mount Gulg or Varis suddenly believing in the need for rejoining or Zenos turning up at the conclusion of Endwalker
were prevalent in all expansions.
I was also lead to believe that Dawntrail was going to be absolutely awful with terrible writing and a slog on the level of post-ARR. But, honestly, that hasn't been my experience so far. I have just finished the level 91 journal and I am finding the story of Dawntrail quite refreshing after how WoL-centric the previous expansions were and I am enjoying the world building being a bit more subtle and delivered via small character interactions rather than being beaten over the head with exposition for cutscene after cutscene.
I have been warned that there are moments where the narrative tension is sapped, but that was also really prevalent in Shadowbringers (as a Viera player, Rak'tika Greatwood was beyond disappointing) and Endwalker
spoiler
(much of Elpis and Ultima Thule)
I've also heard so many complaints about the balance and game design that I am just not really understanding. Perhaps I really need to dip my toes into Savage to understand this, but looking at the concerns it seems very quaint compared with the balance issues in other MMOs (looking at you Guild Wars 2)!
Maybe things really will get monumentally worse and I won't enjoy DT by the end of it, but I am enjoying DT considerably more at this stage than the other expansions aside from Shadowbringers.
I will try to remember to come back and share thoughts when I am done!
The way I feel about Dawntrail is somewhat similar to how I feel about Stormblood - a great story from 100 feet up, good themes, etc. but very clumsy execution. Wuk Lamat is a fine character, but ends up oppressively tied to you the entire MSQ, minus one obvious bit. If they'd have split things, eg. Wuk for the first half, Koana for the second, I think it would have obliviated a significant fraction of the complaints.
Additionally, the voice work is all over the place. I have no idea how many rewrites were involved or what the voice direction situation was like, but this is far and away the expansion with the most inconsistent line read quality and quantity (in English).
That all said, the encounter team fuckin' cooked, holy crap. The dungeons & trials are all great and the first extreme is damn inspired. I love all aspects of The Arcadeon and Jueno, and an very excited to set where things go with them.
Some of the voice acting is indeed all over the place. Krile is very up and down in quality, Alphinaud sounds like he's have his first hangover and Thancred is stuck in Metal Gear mode! Urianger and Alisae have been great, I'm enjoying Erenville a lot more in DT and Wuk Lamat's English VA has been excellent imo.
The endwalker dungeons were like "yeah this is pretty good" and I just came back after a year break to do dawntrail and the dungeons have been amazing. Great visuals and fun mechanics.