Maybe to the endgame not to the game itself.
My server was DEAD along with many others before I left. I have never seen such a sharp decline that they're now having to consider how to combat it in multiple ways. I'm now gone and so is just about everyone I knew that played the game. This was with perhaps one of the most content rich expansions ever. There is clearly something driving people away and again LFG and LFR are not driving factors in keeping people there. Chances are, like with me and mine, it drove quite a bit of the older players off.
What Blizzard is banking on is the short-term and it's beginning to bite them in the ass in attempt to get more casuals in--you don't need stats(and trust me they aren't looking that great anyway) to realize what's going on. MMOs are meant to be time consuming adventures, not the grind up to a CoD-esque matchmaking system for everything under the sun. Again, even the more "hardcore" elements suffer because getting together with people of equal mindedness is more of a job search process than a naturally occurring element in the game's mechanism as you grow as a player.
Assumption or not it is very likely true. The social aspect is damaged beyond near repair and their lack of enforcement hasn't helped. Ever see a neighborhood go bad? Clearly all that money we poured into the game as consumers didn't get us much back. Just strangely less and less customer service in-game. :P
Anyway, can anyone confirm if FFXIV is going to have a LFR type of system or are we going old school? I mean hell, a bulletin board type thing for people seeking this or that among their server would be nice in-game. You can make it fun and still sociable. I just don't want a process that essentially lumps you with anyone and everyone from various other servers you'll likely never see again with content so easy you have no reason to communicate with them to begin with.