[Rant] This game's practically dead in terms of actual content.

Whereas in pre-bb, non-8-hour-maple-per-day players just never made it past level 50, NX or no NX.
And while there's nothing wrong, per se, in staying lower level, it did keep one shut off from most of the content of the game. And of course you couldn't take on any bosses beyond Mushmom, with or without a party.

Back then there wasn't much content in the game anyway -- much less past 50. There were multiple changes to the EXP curve even before BB, and reaching 3rd and 4th job was well within the realm of possibility. The early years of the game were ridiculous, but the latter years saw some much needed improvements especially after the first couple rounds of character revamps.

I daresay the percentage of content open to casual players today is higher than it was back then.

Leaving whether or not that is true aside, the actual power disparity between unfunded and funded has widened. So someone who is unfunded now has even less chance of reaching the end game content now than before.

Difference is, back then you had the motivation and the time to grind 40 hours a week for one more level on the slow slow road to reaching "endgame". Now you're older and busier and don't have time to grind 40 hours a week for one more 15% spell traced slot on your weapon on the slow slow road to reaching "endgame".

It's not even about the motivation. Back then levelling up was actually a guaranteed way of meaningfully improving your damage and training efficiency. When everyone had <10k range, a couple extra attack here and a few more % on your skills there actually did something in the grand scheme of things.

Nowadays you only have two types of content: Too Easy or Too Hard.
The effort:reward ratio is fucked up at the moment.