My hot take for SB is that the main story would've been much better received if they had forgotten this whole "fight on two fronts" nonsense and focused their efforts on either Gyr Abania or the Far East exclusively, instead of spreading it out on two different regions (that are very far away from each other).

While I agree with the general sentiment that SB is inferior to HW, plot-wise, I'm also baffled how the game community worships Yotsuyu and Zenos. Two boring characters that somehow get a pass because "she has a tragic backstory" and uh... checks notes ...because "he has a lotta junk in the trunk"? Anyway, I'm almost ok with Yotsuyu, but I absolutely hate Zenos.

After HW it seems the devs found a sweet spot for content delivery, so mechanically SB feels more of the same. This is slightly improved by having a somewhat more challenging content, since SB is a bit closer to the current power cap than ARR and HW.

One aspect that SB improved significantly were the raids. The Omega raids have a silly plot about a thing that only briefly shows up during post-HW, but to balance that, the raid is FILLED with FFV and FFVI fanservice. The Ivalice raids, as the name suggests, is chock-full with FFXII and FFT references. The bosses, soundtrack, and even the gear aesthetics, they did not fail to bring a smile to the jaded FFXIV player that I am.

Despite greatly enjoying the new raid series, overall I felt very apathetic towards this expansion pack.