While I believe that the sentiment of Abyssea was the right way to go for FFXI, the way they implemented it was off. I have no explanation or better suggestion even in hindsight. 75 cap was definitely the highlight of the game because the absence of the nowadays damn near mandatory "life improvements" like easy soloing and teleports everywhere forced you to make connections. And as mentioned no crossrealm, you had your server pop and that was it, good or bad. An experience lost to the ravages of time.