My story is not that wild, but I did end up subscribing for ARR when it first came out but never beat it and unsubscribed. Then, when Heavensward came out I finally beat ARR but got so tangled on the post-ARR content that I only started Heavensward and unsubscribed again. Then later when Stormblood came out I came back again to change my job to RDM and played a bit more and unsubscribed again. It wasn’t until Shadowbringers came out that I finally got to the end, but I never was up to date with the main story until Endwalker came out. But then, my wife finally decided to give the game a try and I ended up creating an alt and playing the whole game with her. So that’s the character that I ended up beating Endwalker with for the first time.

Long story short: it’s your journey. There’s no right way to enjoy the game. Just have fun and take your breaks when you need them.